General thoughts and reflections on current events in education
5-14-2012 Thoughts and reflection: Maxine Greene’s “How do we think about our craft”
This article brings up a few interesting comments and points throughout its complex thoughts on how teachers think about the art of teaching. One of the interesting quotes that Maxine uses in her article comes from the famous Pedagogist and philosopher John Dewey, stating “the conscious adjustment of the new and old is imagination.” I believe this refers to learning in such a way as people use prior experience (the old) as a way to interpret the world, combining this past experience with new experiences and trying to make sense of this input. Imagination comes when one actively brings together past knowledge and new knowledge to create new ideas. This philosophical idea of imagination and how it may work according to Dewey has everything to do with how the learning process takes place, imagination playing an integral role in how students gain knowledge, new skills, abilities, and grasp concepts in general. When we think about the craft of teaching “higher level questioning” often focuses on imagination, especially in the case of hypothesizing. Maxine states in the article “We may find ourselves reconstructing familiar techniques, honing a set of unused skills, and-significantly-using our imaginations in what turns out to be an effort to improve our craft.” From the teacher perspective imagination is crucial in tackling the needs of our students, finding different ways to better suit their individual learning styles and teach them in the most effective way possible. Teachers must have imagination to constantly construct and reconstruct lessons and adapt daily to the challenges there students put forth. When Maxine states “Nor, we now realize, is it appropriate to view potential learners as deficit systems, empty vessels awaiting our ministrations,” this directly correlates with Paolo Frierre’s book Pedagogy of the Oppressed in describing the banking method of education which has seen its prominence even in modern day education and today’s schools. As far as realizing that this model of education is not appropriate I would rather disagree due to it still be implemented wide spread and even increasingly now with the advent of standardized testing and test prep classes, which many are directly “banking” the necessary information to obtain higher scores and increase statistical data. Data that schools and more recently teachers are now being judged. I believe this is having a detrimental effect on our educational system that will not truly be realized until years to come. Maxine goes on to talk about beginning realizations such as “Gradually becoming aware of all this, we are beginning to recognize that every young person must be encountered as a center of consciousness, even as he or she is understood to be a participant in an identifiable social world. Each one may be encountered as a being who is at once a distinctive individual and someone whose consciousness opens out to the common, an intersubjective world in which he or she is inextricably involved,” which I interpret as the balance between individual and community. On one hand teachers must differentiate, in essence individualize their instruction to most effectively meet students learning needs considering everyone learns in different ways. The distinctive individual is important to the teachers pedagogy, the distinctive individual as a concept is also important to impart on the student, and with that said, comes the intersubjective world where the distinctive individual must also be a part of a community with many diverse and complex social constructs within it. The main idea Maxine seems to be getting at is a more individualistic approach to modern day education, not just teaching a class of students, but rather a group of diverse individuals that form a class. This is the philosophy now being adopted, whether it is being implemented and what effect it is having still seems a question unanswered. Another interesting piece of Maxine’s article is the following writing “Anybody who sets out to teach his pupils to be critical must expect constantly to be embarrassed. He can also expect to be harassed, by his class, by his headmaster, by parents. If he gives up the idea of teaching his students to be critical and salves his conscience by training them in skills, this is not at all surprising. But he should at least be clear about what he is doing, and even more important, what he is not doing."26 Clearly, this is another challenge to think about our craft.” I believe this piece expresses the challenge of teaching students to be critical thinkers. Maxine points out that teaching students to be critical can lead to being critical of the teacher’s performance. This can lead to a challenge of authority in the classroom where the lack of authority could lead to poor classroom management and not being able to effectively communicate or implement the lesson being taught. On the other hand, not teaching students to be critical can be an extreme detriment to their assessment of themselves, their learning, and the work they accomplish. This beckons my philosophies about how instruction in the classroom seems to be changing in the last few years. Being critical means high expectations, and often hard truths about the learning students accomplish and how they progress. With major pushes towards positive behavioral strategies in the classroom focused primarily on positive feedback, this can lack a critical nature in its delivery. To be critical can lead to negative emotions such as students exhibiting frustration and low self esteem self assessing their work as not being good enough because of the critical nature of the assessment. I have often found in my own experience it is an immense challenge to be critical of my students, and teach them to be critical of their own work and learning, while delivering this concept in a way that is positive. For example, Johnny plays a short musical excerpt out of a beginning music book, he plays half of the song with correct pitch, but his rhythm is bad, his tempo fluctuates, he does not play the written articulation or dynamic markings, and the latter half of the song has many pitch errors making it unrecognizable. As a teacher, would being critical mean that I explain in detail all these errors picking apart Johnny’s performance? As positive behavioral strategies have taught me in my learning of instructional practice, no, I would not. I would approach this scenario by first concentrating on the first half of the song and the attributes of that performance that were excellent, praising Johnny as I reviewed his work. I would then point out one or two of the major errors, and let Johnny try again focusing just on one or two of the problems. When Johnny corrected those errors after some brief coaching, I would again use positive reinforcement and move on to the other errors Johnny made. Am I being critical using this approach? What if I had ran out of time using this strategy therefore not being as critical in my assessment? Would not laying everything out in complete critical detail be to Johnny’s dismay, shattering his self esteem and motivation? But would it teach Johnny to be critical? Is my layered approach of positive reinforcement combined with a step based approach of critiquing a better way of implementing my instruction? From a psychological and emotional sense maybe, but to a pedagogical sense? These are many questions I still ponder to answer as I too reflect on my craft as Maxine Greene has done.
4-20-2012 Beyond the Classroom Study: Reflection Laurence Glenzer III Listening and reading articles about failing education in Chicago by its political machine and the media, along with drastic policies being put forward and constant slander on the teaching profession, this study is was sorely needed. This is a study that actually analyzes what teachers do, how they spend there time, and other statistics that outline what goes on in the schools, I believe is a step forward in educating the public and politicians about teachers, the people on the frontlines of education with a direct connection to the student population and which have the largest effect on learning. According to the study, with an 8 hour and 53 minute on average work day broken up into 5 hours and 38 minutes of teaching related activities and 3 hours and 3 minutes of non-teaching related activities, these could be important statistics to look at when considering what will improve student learning. Over 3 hours of non-teaching related activities for a teacher is excessive. Of the teaching related activities, actual instruction takes place only 3 hours and 23 minutes for the high school mean, with 45 minutes for assessing student work and another 20 for giving curriculum assessments, that’s over an hour of assessment taken away from instruction everyday. Assessment is indeed important in the instructional process in informing the teacher the progression of the students and how to adapt and plan lessons in the future, this too seems excessive, and seems to only be getting worse with the continuing emphasis on standardized testing. This study also states that it did not include high stakes test prepping and administering into the standard school day, which if they had done so would have reduced instructional time by another hour from around 4 hours down to 3, (page 14). When you add up all the hours of excessive assessment and test prepping for the core subjects over the course of just one school year, a massive amount of time has been spent that could have been used for learning and moving forward in subject material. These statistics show places where changes can be made to increase instructional time, instead of merely extending the school day. Another statistic that stood out was the amount of time “210 weekly minutes sorting data” to 45 minutes a week collaborating with other teachers. The common core standards and other initiatives designed to promote teacher collaboration I believe are steps in the right direction, but with these initiatives comes with it increasing reliance on data collection and analysis, which adds excessive amounts of time to a teachers day, time that could be spent in regards to instructional matters. The study indicates an average of 2 hours of work after school is over, and 3 hours and 45 minutes during weekends showing teachers are already working well outside the hours required of them, while politicians slash pensions, benefits, and salary increases and pay scales in general. The teaching profession breeds passion in its members, working off the clock because they believe in the ideology and sociological impact of the work. When you take away the means to support oneself financially to the point of teachers having to work multiple jobs to thrive and have a family of there own, your cutting down the profession to a menial hourly job where workers clock and in and out for a paycheck and that’s it. The teaching profession is slowly turning into this concept as politicians use education as an issue to further their political game and rhetoric. This study outlines the extra work teachers put into their profession, and also highlights the time management currently in place, which I believe if tweaked could have a significant impact on student learning.
11-6-2011 Thoughts on article: Teaching performance in the context of truly disadvantaged schools in Chicago, Elaine Allensworth
This article states the context in which teachers work sets the stage for them to be effective and want to stay in their school. This statement needs to be encouraged and this article gets it right on every point. Currently the beaurocracy mindset is to incentivise teachers through a merit system among others, and create methods of identifying and removing weak teachers to create a better school. This article overviews and gives statistics analyzing major concerns of the profession such as teacher mobility, work environment, school and classroom context, school climate, community, and the focus on individual teachers in todays debates on teacher performance. Concerning teacher mobility, the article states 85% of teachers nationwide stay in their school year to year, and Chicago is at 80%, but what is alarming is within 5 years Chicago loses almost half its teaching staff, a very interesting point. This section goes on to state problems with high staff turnover rates such as organizational problems, discontinuity with professional development, shortages in key subjects, and loss of teacher leadership. Others I can think would be inconsistancy in instruction, poor staff teamwork, low staff morale, and weakened relationships with community and parents.
Work environment is the next section in the article focusing on poor working conditions for schools in Chicago in relation to staff mobility, teacher teamwork and morale, quality of instruction, and overall school climate. Many of the statements in the article seem like no-brainers: Teachers want to be able to work with other teachers - collaboration. Teachers want to be supported by administration in there efforts to instruct and create an effective learning environment. Teachers want to feel they have a real stake in making the school successful, and be trusted by their principal as an instructional leader. The artcile cites schools that make the most improvement gains overall are the schools where teachers work collectively on improving instruction, school leadership in inclusive, and focused on teaching. Teachers want parental support at their school, teachers want to stay at schools where students feel safe and their are less behavioral problems. I use the term "no-brainers" becaue these traits I have just listed seem obvious and absolute neccessities to having a school succeed, ESPECIALLY in the urban environment of Chicago. If these issues are focused on, how to implement becomes the biggest hurdle, if not focused on, what chance does a school have to improve?
School and classroom context is the next section of the article focusing on five areas that research says improves student learning the most: leadership, professional capacity, partnerships with families and community, learning climate, and instruction. The most interesting part of this section is comments on a study concerning teacher qualifications and student learning gains. The study found that in general, the association bewteen teacher qualifications and learning gains depended completely on the school context. BUT, there was no association bewteen teacher qualifications and learning gains at schools with poor learning climates. In other words, school context is a massive piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving schools. You can have the best teachers in the world, but if they are put into a school thats climate is unsafe, has a tradition of poor attendance, broken down equipment and facilities, etc. it won't turn around the school into a success. This leads into the next section of school climate - again many of the comments seem to me as obvious - students need to feel safe, well yes students, and everyone needs to feel safe so they can focus at the job at hand. Students that come from areas that have low poverty and crime tend to have safer school environments - in essense schools sare small communites - micro communities - within the larger social structure - and mirror that structure. If you have a middle upper class population, there children will adopt social behavior of there parents - which had to uphold certain social behaviors to get to the middle/upper class. Children of high crime and poverty areas are going to uphold the social norms of there environment, thus they exist in the "micro" school community. As I've said again and again in this blog, readings, questions, answers, all swing back to the larger social question of the massive impact poverty has on our society - which is becoming increasingly evident in our school system.
Community based solutions to teaching effectiveness:
The focus on individual teachers:
Paralells to educational theorists:
10-15-2011 Mr. Glenzer on Mr. Dewey
Three things I find most applicable to my situation while reading Dewey are his dissection of education into two parts, psychological and social, focus on stimulation of the child’s powers, and his ideas of the use of imagery that teachers must evoke in students.
Being a music teacher and in particular band director I believe immensely in the combined use of psychological or cognitive instructional strategies combined with creating a social environment and atmosphere that is conducive to learning, belonging, and espirit de corps.
Dewey’s idea of stimulating and training a child’s powers is an interesting concept. Many teachers might believe there students walk into their classes a blank slate, and thus must be infused with information throughout the year. I believe the students come in with past experiences that can benefit them; they come with powers, i.e. strengths and weaknesses, which must be identified and nurtured. Stimulating the strengths of students can improve self esteem and confidence, stabilize foundational concepts already understood, and have an impact on weaknesses that still need to be developed. The biggest impact of stimulating a child’s powers in my opinion is that the student understands these powers and connects with the concept of learning, enjoys the process of learning, the value of hard work, leading to becoming a lifelong learner.
Dewey’s ideas of imagery are fascinating, mainly the teacher translating content into imagery the student will think about. I always considered this one of the goals of teaching, having a student imagine the concept therefore understanding it. One can approach teaching a simple concept in a million different ways, hoping one of the ways connects with that individual learner. I believe the first step is understanding how the students will receive your instruction, and in taking Dewey’s ideas, how they will actually think about what you’re trying to teach. “Put yourself in the other person’s shoes” is an old saying that comes to mind when I think about what Dewey is trying to say. Many teachers use this strategy, which can be effective, but keeping in mind every single student has their own individual way of processing information, gain skill, and learn.
Two ways Dewey impacts my teaching situation is building a band program rather than just teaching individual band classes. Creating a band family, a social architecture for which my students can learn both cognitively and thrive socially is of utmost importance to the success of not only the classes but the performances musically. I akin this to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where my goal is creating moments of self actualization, the highest need of the pyramid, during performances, where these moments can last the rest of the students lives, having a lasting impression in experiencing an educational and artistic experience. Creating a social atmosphere of close friendships between students and strong mentoring between conductors and musicians can make these moments possible.
An area where Dewey and I might disagree may be the aspect of creating citizenship through public education. Although I do not quite dismay at this concept, I don’t necessarily believe education has to have this duty of creating a certain populace to fill the needs of society. I see education as more of an institution with a directive on how to be a human being. Education in America as a public institution controlled by state and federal governments, it is obvious to see why these ideas have intertwined with Dewey’s philosophies. I also believe Dewey also was involved with economics and the corporate interests in education in America, which essentially wanted schools to train a better work force for the future.
10-10-2011 Marzano powerpoint presentation: could we use more time
This powerpoint was a presentation Marzano gave for the Butler school district. It centered on time management, data analysis, school effectiveness and what attributes, and a concept called DIBELS for reading and language instruction. I believe marzano's statement about reducing supplemental instruction, and tearing down the curriculum to the most important aspects to deliver instruction within the time alotted during the school year. Too often teachers are slammed with so many initiatives at once trying to cover everything, which in my mind makes no sense, and in the end dumbs down the curriculum and reduces the chance of student learning and achievement. Having a narrow focus across the board focusing on a schools weakness through data analysis can be helpful, while in turn not overwhelming teachers and staff. Analyzing and focusing on what makes any particular school effective, organizing around those goals, and implementing them in a focused way can increase achievement. In the end there's just not enough time in most cases, but management, organization, and focus can help. 10-10-2011 Thoughts on Deweys Pedagogic Creed
I found this creed to be fascinating in regards to its relevance today when being written over a century ago, and the fact that I concur with many of Dewey’s philosophies and beliefs. The creeds foundation is based on the belief that "true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.” In general Dewey believes in the marriage of psychology and sociology to form education. The social emphasis in education is one point Dewey constantly reinforces throughout his creed.
The two sides of education, psychological and social, Dewey states are organically related and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two. In preparing students for their future, Dewey believes to prepare students to command themselves; “to train students in the use of all there capacities, eye, ear, hand may be tools to be readily used.” This idea can somewhat contradict current trends in education where focus on test prep is a dead end in regards to any kind of practical skill gain.
Dewey defines the school institution as a social one that should be in its essence a community organization. The building of community in schools lends itself to Dewey’s ideas of the social half of education. Dewey believes many schools fail because they neglect this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. He believes the social interaction and community that can go on in school is the moral trainer and educator that prepare students to work together and succeed as an individual in greater society.
Dewey’s ideas about literature are interesting, in that he states that literature should follow upon experience, such as students would read a story about kids going camping and nature, only after they have actually gone camping. He believes literature is the reflex of expression and interpretation of social experience, and should not precede that experience. I found this interesting in that this statement could relate to Vygotsky's scaffolding, or building upon prior knowledge to gain a greater understanding, however I could be interpreting this incorrectly.
Dewey’s belief on the instruction of history is that he it is of value due to representation of phases of social life and growth. Again Dewey constantly pulls everything to this idea of social life and experience.
In article IV. The nature of method Dewey talks a lot about imagery and how more teachers should think less about the information or skills there students are receiving, but HOW they are receiving it, through imagery. I found this to be fascinating. I feel many teachers can do this through multiple instructional strategies such as audio, visual, and sensory activities that all work together to form an image in the students mind that they can grasp on to while building on previous knowledge of the content area. In this section Dewey also talks about interests and how important they are to a student’s educational growth. Montessori and others adopt this belief as one of their core principles, basing instruction purely off of student interest, i.e. large sections of open-ended time for students to explore there own particular interests. Finally in this section he talks about emotion and the role it plays in experience, as long as it is genuine.
The final article is about social reform. Dewey believes education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform. I hold this belief as well and it is one of the reasons I became a teacher, because I felt it would of have the most overall impact in society. I found Dewey’s last statement of the creed interesting because of its obvious religious implications. He proclaims teachers are the prophet of the true god and the usherer in of the kingdom of god. I have to assume he was a religious man, and this was written in 1897, as well as many of the educational institutions being religious based at that time and still today. As to the relation between pedagogy, religion, and god, I fail to see the connections, other than paying homage to his lord at the end of his creed.
10-05-2011 Theories of Childhood, introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky, book Overview
Thought: Many of these theorists grapple with the concept of teacher role in the classroom, with many advocating a student centered classroom where the teacher sets the stage and acts as an observer and guide, in various extremes of how the teacher should interact with students, or at all. The student centered classroom is labeled as “progressive” education in that it departs from the “traditional” education format of the teacher reciting out of a text book while students learn by rote, memorization, and repetition, and are not allowed to speak or interact during lecture.
Dewey
Observation
Teacher planning/direction
Know children
Organization
Plan well
Documentation
Teacher knowledge of content area
Make sense of world for students through greater knowledge and experience
Purposeful curriculum
Build on prior learning/experience (scaffolding – Vygotsky)
Old vs. new not argument – what is of educational value
Educational vs. mis-educational experiences
Montessori
Child-centered environment
Focus on environment for students and let them experiment
Very little teacher intervention/interaction
Child sized tools
Focus on sensory experience
Have accessible materials – low shelves, small chairs/tables
Beauty and order in classroom – aesthetics
Children have responsibility and competence
Learn by doing
Exploration/experimentation
Open-ended scheduling/ time slots
Children must have interest in work
Intrinsic
Erikson
Stages of psychosocial development
Focus on emotional and social development and health
Age 0-1 : Trust vs. Mistrust
Internal/external
Hold babies during feeding
Respond to distress
Support attachment
Primary caregivers
Ages 2-3: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
Initiate choice and exploration
Allow swings between independence and dependence
Give simple choices
No false choices
Define clear limits
Inititive vs. Guilt
Sense of purpose
Activiely focused, less defiant
Encourage independence
Focus on gains not mistakes (positive behavioral support)
Use real tools for real world activities
Piaget
Cognitive focus
Constructivist
Open-ended questioning/activities
Exploration
Recess
Nature
Formal operational
Concrete operations
Reverseibility
Preoperational
No multi task
Object permanence
Learn by experience/ doing things
Vygotsky
Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
Distance between what a student can do on their own and when help is needed
Importance in observation of students
Qualitative/Quantitative instruction/assessment
Observation of children just as valid as test scores
Social cognition
Scaffolding – building on past experience/knowledge
9-26-2011 The beliefs and behaviors of star teachers
I found this article to interesting as I had hoped I would display many of teh described qualities of a star teacher.
Belief #1: beliefs about school environment (administrative duties etc - non-teaching)
I totally agree and believe I hold the star teachers approach, in that paperwork definitely makes my job more difficult and time consuming, but I have learned to deal with it, use it to my advantage in how I organize my career. After teaching for six years I believe I have come to grips with the lack of decent work facilities and environments, or I would have been long gone. I believe I also try to impart on my students how some of these things are a fact of life and dealing with them in an effective and low stress manner can make you successful in any field they choose to persue.
Belief #2: Whom they should teach
I definitely hold the star behavior in this belief in that I see problem and special needs students as a challenge and am excited to change and adapt my approaches to teaching to service them. The job would turn very mundane without students to challenge the teacher, curriculum, instructional strategies, and classroom. With this said one must be an effective teacher able to handle a classroom effectively in order to make these adjustments in the moment as well as in the planning stages of instruction.
Belief #3: What and how to teach
Stars believe that goals of the school are several and varied, quitter/failures believe the school is successful if it teaches the basics....this one seems to be a no-brainer - why would any teacher want to be in a school where you just teach the basics, the bare minimum, and think that successful? It would be ludicrous to think that way living in the vast world that surrounds us. It would be boring and mundane.
Belief #4: Stars teach connected subject matter that grows in complexity, quitters/failures dumb down curriculum and teach disconnected lesson
the qutters failures must be terrible teachers if they don't connect there lessons or grow in complexity, its the whole point of learning - build on foundations and further your knowledge - that seems to the basic definition of learning
Belief #5: Stars are committed to the scientific method, quitters not
This one was interesting for me teaching music - but according to the definition of the scientific method, it is a method of inquiry and investigation of phenomena - which I do everyday in my classes - the phenomena being musical works and music performance on any given instrument.
belief #6: How to deal with students
Stars believe in motivation - I'm definitely a star here in that everything I do has some sort of motivational aspect. I need to give students a reason to want to be in the classroom and that just comes down to motivating them and making the experience something they intriniscally value.
Belief #7: Stars are knowledgeable of human devleopment - quitters failures attribute misbehavior as a deficiency or failing.
This seems like education 101 in that all teachers - to become teachers - must be knowledgeable in human growth and development. Quitter/failures must of overslept that class and most likely weren't fascinated enough with child development to keep up on reading many many great books that are constantly being released on the subject. Child behavior - educational psychology is a pillar of the profession.
Belief #8: Stars seek out answers concerning inadequate instruction in themselves, curriculum, or teacher methods, quitters blame others - students, parents, families, ethnicity
Totally a star here, always relfecting on my practice and how I can improve. Although I do believe that bad parents, students with severe learning disabilities, or socioeconomic/poverty issues can hugely impact instruction - but I do not blame that for inadequate instruction, rather I choose to deal with it, adapt, and find new ways of grappling with the problem. Thoughts anyone?
Belief #9: Stars willing to make mistakes
I am human, perfection does not exist in nature, and I show my students that I am not infallible. I make mistakes all the time, and I have to admit to them so students are not misdirected
Belief #10: Stars believe effort makes schools successful - quitters believe innate ability
This one is an interesting one. I definitely believe effort is the way to go - and innate ability is the easy way out - and I believe if you combine innate ability WITH effort, you have something very powerful
Belief #11: relationship built on respect, not love
I definitely agree with the stars on building a working relationship and rapport of respect. In order to not have favoritism, and the fact that your never going to love ALL your students - creating an environment of respect creates equality
Belief #12: Stars believe school is a matter of life and death for students - quitters like having a secure job
I wouldn't be in the profession if I didnt feel like a star for this belief...The whole point of me embarking on this profesession is to help people in teh most impactful way possible - which I believe is teh profession of education
9-15-2011
Thoughts on debate : Karen Lewis VS Brizard
I was very excited about this debate but should of known it would be a dance of politics and generalities. Karen lewis came off as condascending many times, Brizard, quiet, reserved, and polite. I thought the Chicago tribune mediator surprisingly did a good job of keeping things going in a interesting direction as the debate was alot shorter than I had hoped. Some issues that arose were teachers urging the Union to lead the conversation on education policy in Chicago instead of taking a reactionary role in almost everything that hits the headlines. Merit pay was brought up which I thought was ridiculous as their is no conclusive research that merit pay is effective in promoting student learning, and since our teacher evaluation system needs desperate critiquing, and a huge question looming in the educational landscape is how do schools measure teacher effectiveness, how will merit pay be distributed and by what measure? The union and CPS agreed the evaluation system needed to be overhauled. Conversation about poverty came up quite a bit proclaiming Chicago needs a reality check on its current state of poverty, segregation, and social welfare system, which i agree with, and a central topic which leading educators are screaming about in regards to student achievement. The disparity between selective enrollment schools and neighborhood schools was brought up with no real plans or solutions on making educaion equal in the city, just general statement about how the city will improve every childs education no matter the school...but how? The longer school day was included in the title of the debate and seemed to be the central issue. Lewis proclaimed no clear data on increased time equaling increased achievement, where Brizard said the opposite. Lewis cryed foul of CPS manipulation in implementing the program this year, saying she would agree to the longer school day if it was given time to be planned out, which i agree with. A few people came up with questions after writing essays to the trobune and being selected to speak at the debate, one student from northside prep, outlining the dispairty among selective enrollment vs. neighborhood schools - equality in education in Chicago. Another union teacher that called out karen concerning dismayment with union actions and behavior, and not doing enough to root out bad teachers. It is a fine line you must follow when trying to root out bad teachers from effective ones, and not losing rights along the way, a current and continuing debate that will not soon end. overall I was glad I attended the event but came away with not clear answers and just more questions as to where the state of education is going in Chicago Public schools.
7-5-2011
Thoughts on article: Full Inclusion, educational foundations book
Inclusion has been an interesting challenge to tackle in my classroom, having band students that can barely write there names, and often I am constantly trying to think of new ways to teach music. My back up plan is always one on one instruction with students that don't understand or can't get past a certain topic. To not fall prey to the often used argument that teaching special education students in a general ed classroom can take away from the advancement of "typical" students, I have come up with and used many teaching strategies to keep the entire class engaged while I am giving my attention one on one to students that need it, special ed or not. A few of these ways are as follows:
1. While working one on one, give the rest of teh class specific objectives to tackle on your own, such as "Practice measures 9-15 for 4 minutes" or "find the hardest measure in the piece and work on that for 2 minutes" while I step off the podium the entire class starts to practice, often in small groups helping each other out (peer mentoring) and I am able to briefly work one on one. the trick is to do seamless transitions so that the class does not loose momentum or attentiveness.
2. Assign advanced students solos and etudes to challenge them outside of the regular band music that they can practice during "off-podium" times
3. Make peer mentoring a normal part of the routine in the band rehearsal environment, change seating if necessary despite chair placement
4. After school lessons (tutoring) is an incredible way to keep students on track
5. Specific practice assignments for each instrument (practice homework)
6. Teacher PATIENCE! Don't give up! Adapt and learn from how your students learn, learn multiple ways of teaching a single concept Full Inclusion Handout: Full Inclusion as a Disclosing Tablet, Revealing the flaws inour present system Educational Foundations, page 65
This article does a good job atdescribing inclusion and how it functions today, how it has transformed, andwhere it needs to go, describing myths, with the centralized theme beingadaptable successful teaching as a core component. The title “Full Inclusion as a disclosingtablet” refers to a dental technique – a tablet chewed after brushing, thatidentifies the areas missed by brushing. In comparison, the implementation of full inclusion identifies the flawsin our general education classes as a whole Discussion Questions
What has been your experience with full inclusion in your classroom? Pro or Con?
Howhas the study of teaching techniques for inclusion augmented your instruction?
Whatare techniques you use exclusively for inclusion students? How do these benefit or detract from “typical”students learning?
Whatis your suggestion towards improving special education?
Financialfactors play an important role in school development, is inclusion a concern atyour school? Is it being supported? Is it innovative or stagnant?
Doyou get help from teachers aides? Do youcollaborate with them?
Howflexible is the average teacher at your school? To improve as an educator you must constantly be adapting and innovatingyour skills, how does that relate to inclusion?
Ishaving special education a form of segregation, which is a violation of equalrights?
Educationalterminology, evolution of theory, and semantics According to the article, inclusionsurfaced from many different avenues, twenty years ago first encompassing theterm, mainstreaming: “putting selected students with disabilities into generaled classrooms when a good “match” could be made.” Mainstreaming turned into integration,essentially meshing two separate programs together, general and special education. Through trial and error we have now come upwith inclusion: “changing existing classroom structures so that all studentscan be served within a unified system.” The history and development of inclusion has had many heroes includingparents, teachers, and administrators that have shaped and promoted themovement, as well as promoted new ways of thinking concerning curriculum andinstruction.
What has been your historical experience in regards to the transformation inclusionhas taken over the past decade? How hasit effected your teaching?
Final Thought: To be a great teacher you must be highlyeffective at individualizing your instruction to every single student.
7-4-2011
Thoughts on article: The banking model of education, educational Foundations book
The Banking Concept of Education
Educational Foundations, page 99
This was a very complex article covering deep issues aboutthe society we live in, and our broader education philosophy, which the authordescribes as �Banking� education, as opposed to the problem-posing method. To describe lightly these two approaches,banking education is the practice of the teacher as narrator, dispensingknowledge while the students collect it, as receptacles. For example, a common practice in teachingfor any subject would be guided notes. The teacher displays notes on an overhead, while the students copy itdown as the teacher talks about the notes out loud. The students write down, memorize, andassimilate the specific information required for the course, and then aretested on those facts. Problem-posededucation is where students are given a real world problem, and work as a classor in small groups to discover solutions through dialogue, as the teacherbecomes a participant along with the students, an observer, or a guide towardspossible outcomes. This article describesdeeper implications of a banking education system, such as creating automatons,severely inhibiting creative thought and critical thinking, and losing sense ofreal world skills and problems. AlthoughI believe banking education does exist to a large extent, problem posededucation also exists in many lesson plans of current teachers, and themovement towards student centered classrooms contributes to the idea ofdialogue and real world problem solving where students become teachers andteachers become students. The largerquestions the author poses are those of how are society in general isconstructed. Students are made to learnspecific skills and knowledge, and thus that knowledge is applied to careers inwhich they make money and contribute to an economy and social structure inwhich builds upon itself, essentially a capitalistic society. �Oppressors� stated in the article are thepolitically and monetarily powerful who promote this system to where freethinking and transformation of societal norms becomes impossible, andmaintaining of power for the powerful becomes inevitable.
7-1-2011
Thoughts on the article: The idea of Summerville,Educational Foundations book
The idea of Summerhill
Educational Foundations Book, page 165
When I started readingthis article, the title, the Ideaof Summerhill, I felt that this was a fictional school. In our day in age with so many differentkinds of schools, and yet all these varieties, public, private, charter, religious,montesori, etc. still have many things in common. Montesori schools seem to be most similar tothe Summerhill idea.
As I read on alas thisschool is not fictional, but a real school in England. I think there should be schools likeSummerhill, trying new things, exploring other avenues, and there are manythings I agree with in this article, and some not. The concept of doing away with fear and hate,embracing total freedom, and encouraging, which the article does not directlystate, but is obvious, is intrinsic learning, are great things to incorporate intoa school. In fact intrinsic learning,which is a main goal of my instruction at a public school, is in fact the centralidea at Summerhill. Making the “school fit the child instead of the child fitting the school,” is another centralpoint in this article and one that can promote success in learning. Although Summerhill does this drasticallythrough many means discussed in the article, I believe our public schools aregoing in this direction as well, through developments in individual educationplans, individualized instruction, and after school programs that match studentinterests such as the after school matters program in Chicago, which mighttransform into a extension of the school day in the near future with pendinglegislation underway and political action by our new mayor Rahm Emmanuel.
Near the end of thearticle, I strongly believed in this quote, “the function of the child is to live his own life – not the life that hisanxious parents think he should live, nor a life according to the purpose of aneducator who thinks he knows what’s best.” I believe we have become trapped and complacent in an old system whereeveryone must fit the same mold, must all know the same facts, figures, andknowledge, with the assumption that this will prepare each and every one of ourstudents for a successful future. Istrongly believe that each student needs to create their own path, they mustdiscover their passion, only then can the power of instrinsic learning truly beunleashed. When the path has alreadybeen layed out for them, the same path as everyone else, and that path isextremely narrowly focused in math and reading, that chance for students todiscover their passion, to find the knowledge that will help them succeed atwhatever life they choose, is severely limited. Summerhill gives students that chance, and also frees them frompsychological pressures such as low-self esteem and self confidence, fear, andhatred. I believe there should be more experimentaland demonstration schools to find the right answers to education in our modernday, the big question is how can solutions to problems be duplicated across thecountry – which I believe is the true question, or whether replication is evenpossible, or the answer at all.
This video is about the huge increase in teacher and state worker retirements this past year. They focused on one older teacher that was retiring, mainly due to the slandering of the profession by politicians and the media. It was nice to see a story, although sad, at least not negative about the profession. With huge campaigns against unions and teacher rights, benefits and retirement cuts, and pension changes i don't blame the exodus of teachers near retirement. I found it not surprising that the rate of retirement applications for teachers in Wisconsin according to this news segment was up a whopping 96%, Wisconsin being one of the states at the heart of the battle against teachers. This segment finally hinted at the fact that by demoralizing the profession, making huge cuts, and privatizing the public school system, your actually encouraging quality teachers to leave the profession. We are making are schools worse by this debacle that is education reform, mistakes that might take decades to remedy. Students in high school and college are deterred from joining the profession in the first place, further worsening the frontlines of education in America. More positive stories need to be shown over the airwaves to the public telling the real stories of teachers, students, families, and community. this would be the best way to defend our current situation and the immpending storm of market based privatized for-profit education models.
Okay Larry! Are ya trying to show us all up by having all the reflections completed? :) In the CNN article I agree with Shulpe Stevens statement that, “Duncan has written off the input of teachers he claims to value.” I believe that Duncan, as well as many political officials and school district CEOs, do not take into consideration the valuable input teachers have to offer. Many teachers struggle trying to create a curriculum where there aren’t any resources for them to work with, books or supplies in the classrooms. They don’t ask the teachers what they need, lack, or see happening in their classroom or school district. They have blinders on only saying that they are trying to “do what’s best for the children.” ~Stacy
5-22-2011
Article reflectionCNN.comTeachers give cold shoulder to Obama education chief This article outlines the bitterness teachers currently feel being attacked by politicians and the media. Currently teachers are the scapegoat for failing schools. Policy reformers and administration seem to be doing a great job? My mom gave me what I feel is a great analogy, we are at currently at war around the world for various reasons, and when things don’t go well, or we’re fighting where we shouldn’t be in the first place, who do people blame? The blame the people running the military, they blame the president, or the government, they do not blame the soldiers fighting on the ground, the troops. Using the same logic for blaming teachers in failing schools, would be like blaming the soldiers on the ground for decisions made at the pentagon. Administration and especially policy makers need to be blamed for the direction education in America is going in, not the teachers implementing their policy. It was nice that Arne Duncan gave a statement to the press praising teachers and the profession, but that means nothing when his actions are destroying the profession and those in it. War is coming, not on the battlefield, but in the classroom, and the only casualties are America’s youth. Education week Outlines of ESEA’s future emerging on Capitol HillThis article is about reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act (ESEA) which is essentially no child left behind. This will be interesting because no child left behind failed incredibly at reaching its final goals, with almost 100% of schools in America failing to meet the standards set for the 2012 deadline. This reauthorization also begs the question of what kind of role should the federal government play in school accountability and funding. Accountability has been the name of the game for the past decade rewarding and punishing schools based on test scores and wide ranging metrics or adequate yearly progress (AYP). This article talks about talks to scrap smaller education programs that lawmakers say are ineffective, I feel confident about this due to the vast educational knowledge of lawmakers, (sarcasm). It seems that the belt will be tightening and education will lose more funding in an already under funded climate. The article talks about flexibility in how schools use funding, which I believe is the right way to go when considering that individual schools know best how to most effectively operate their schools to improve their student populations learning. Other measures discussed in the article are permanently incorporating the so-called solution of turning around schools – closing schools and replacing staff, where’s the data that proves this is a solution? Another is a literacy Bill which would bolster instruction in reading and writing which is probably needed if you want to improve test scores, despite this reason improving literacy can never be a bad thing if the finds are used correctly. Yong Zhao“Can you be globally competitive by closing your doors and raising test scores” This article highlights the growing problem in America’s school system with the focus on testing. This article argues with such extreme focus on extra math, reading, and test prep classes, as well as redirecting funding from foreign language, the arts, and other non core subjects to math and reading are having a detrimental effect on education. International schools are popping up all over the world, including a mobile international school called TGS (Think Global School.) This school moves to a different country every trimester, which I found fascinating. The partnership between a school in China and a school in Michigan I found interesting and hopefully is the start of something bigger. Being a teacher of the arts I feel the intense focus on core subjects can have a negative impact on education, but probably a positive impact on test data, which seems to be the only thing that matters. Today we have such an obsession with measuring performance, and with the increasing opinion that a market based approach to education is the right answer, data, metrics, test scores, and tools to measure performance whether they actually work or not is on the horizon. A possible answer I could extend is to fight data with data by doing research and gathering metrics that show we as a country are going in the wrong direction, and that education in America is getting worse due to the policies concerning testing and how we measure performance of schools. I strongly believe in an international education and we do need to improve education if our students aren’t developing reading and math skills which are important, but I believe focusing on poverty and social issues could have a larger impact on education then focusing on education itself. 5-15-2011:Thoughts on the inner world of teaching article handout The best thing out of this aarticle are the three questions teachers ask themselves about awareness and control in dealing with events in the classroom: 1. How am I interpreting this event? 2. Will this interpretation lead to a positive outcome? 3. If not, what's a more useful interpretation?
I ask these things to myself ALL the time, constantly, in everything I do when reacting to the class, it changes day to day based on my mood and the moods of the students, you have to be a master at understanding peoples emotional status at any given time. Instantly picking up on personaity changes so as to get the most positive putcome. This article put into words what I strongly believe is the best way to constantly adapt and improve general interaction with students and the class as a whole.
5-15-2011: article review The article Poor teaching for poor children..in the name of reform is an excellent article that really shines light on the problems in the inner city. Overall these problems are not stemming from bad teachers or teaching, but from the direction and pressure put on teachers to influence their instruction from the implementation of reform by administration and politicians. Ever since standardized tests became the gold standard for “improving schools” by measuring student achievement, and now teacher effectiveness, slowly and steadily teachers have had to cater there instruction to improving these scores by which schools and education are judged. This has resulted in instruction that has become less about conceptual understanding and more about rote learning, memorization, and test taking strategies. This has had a severe effect where scores are lowest, in areas of poverty in urban environments, penalizing these schools by taking away funding or turning around schools that create massive instability in student’s lives. This creates more problems than it solves. The studies and statistics in this article do not surprise me such as minority students getting drill and practice exercises while white children are more likely to get exploratory methods of instruction, which the study mentioned in the article is associated with poorer test results. Yet the people writing reform do not seem to be aware of these factors. The other big point in this article is when the “standardized exams justify dreadful forms of teaching to appear successful,” when statistical gains are made by test prep classes and other test focused courses. My thoughts? All these reform measures have created even more inequality in education in America. Who is running education, the schools? Who is responsible for education in America? The blame game is a hot topic right now and teachers are getting the short end of the stick. We’re turning into a system where teachers are going to be mindless drones teaching exactly the way non-teachers, administration, and reformers want, who are disconnected from the actual education system, classrooms, parents, and students. Why will the system turn into this beast? Because unions are being destroyed, charters are taking over, and teacher accountability is the new name of the game, and teachers want to keep their jobs, so in the end they will have to anything the boss says despite their training and first hand classroom experience. Control is leaving the hands of the experts and is being given to people that experience the education system in the third person.
5-15-2011: article reflection
My thoughts on the article, Help Charters//, are disturbing. I am constantly asking myself why the decisions discussed in the article are being made by people in power. What is the true intent by reformers and the political elite? It is quite obvious at least one point is the complete privatization of public education in America. This article screams this point when former Mayor Daley cleans out the dying public schools by consolidating 7 schools into 4. This article screams this point when the lame duck school board renews a failing charter school, Urban Charter Prep High. This article screams this point when the school board renews Chicago Virtual Charter School which flunked its accountability plan. Chicago Virtual High School, a school where students attend lab classes twice a week with “learning coaches,” I don’t know how I can express my immense outrage into words. Will my profession be transformed from teachers to learning coaches? Who thought up the idea of turning teachers into computer lab baby sitters? Are reformers seriously surprised this is not working out, and yet the school board of Chicago renews the charter contract? What is the allure of privatization of public education? Is it because the inner cities are failing standardized tests that we have to privatize? It’s certainly an excuse. Is it because reformers have to completely overhaul the system to try and get better results by using market-based approaches to the education system? Reformers and politicians love data; they would marry data, and live happily ever after. But where is the data in this fairytale storybook of the life of education? I have yet to see any data that is conclusively saying charters are the answer, that privatization is the answer to improving our school system. Yet here we are.
5-5-2011: Thoughts on educating Esme'
Interesting article. I think Ive felt the same way Esme felt in the people she encountered starting her education career. Often in the past I have come up against constant road blocks from co-workers in positions of power that thought they knew best in my music program, even though they had little understanding of the arts, music, or how a successful program operates and looks like. After my first year i came to the conclusion that I must teach everyone around me what a successful band program is and looks like, and to buy in to my philosophy of music education. Initially I felt hesitant, but the more conferences, books, articles i read, conversations with colleagues and mentors, i began to form a more solid teaching technique and philosophy which now stands strong and confident. And i am strong and confident in conveying my ideas to others, in a positive way so as to have the majority of people around me buy in to what i am trying to accomplish. I formed the idea from reading the article that Esme didn't expect incompetance entering the field from veteran professionals, but indeed encountered this, which disrupted her mission in eduction, and we all have this in our lives as educators. It is frustrating. This article highlighted the internal politics of the profession that can be difficult for all teachers, not just beginners.
5-4-2011 : Thoughts on NLU education forum: Chicago Shakespeare theater
I thought this forum was awesome for getting a vareity of professionals in the field of education. The big idea I took away from this was getting taken back to the larger picture of society and the democracy we are trying to build in the United States of America. Democracy truly is at the core when it comes to education. Education that is equal for all classes of society that creates citizens that go forth and build the society in which we live and prosper. Education is not equal in America, and this inequality is at the heart of the social problems we encounter in this current day. Where are the worst schools? In urban areas of extreme poverty. How can we help students in these areas and at these schools without addressing the core problem of social inequality and poverty. During the forum i agreed with many of the hopeful and optimistic veiwpoints of the ideas of reform to improve our current system, but what the forum seemed to lack, as a certain reality of where we are in this reform in the past year. Current reform is leading us down a path of privatization and market based education, that has not seen true merit in research. Current reform has seen the demies of unions that sole purpose was to promote equality among laborors and the middle class. The more I read through current reform policy the more I see a terminally ill middle class which despite its moral and societal implications, expands upon the problems in education we already have. Thoughts to continue processing...The forum was on the short side, although opening a mammoth discussion such as this no time limit would satisfy, rather I would promote an ongoing regular debate among scholars on these issues. It is needed. i was impressed by Bill Ayers and Deborah Meier, both seemed to have a greater understanding of the art of education and how to move forward in a positive direction, although no clear cut solutions seemed to arise from this forum. Rather a conversation among different professionals in the field of education, not all on the same side, in itself seemed to be a start. i wished they would of addressed the future mayors education reform for next year in Chicago, wich wasnt discussed at all, I also would of liked more discussion on the demies of the teachers unions and the privatization direction of education policy on the federal and state levels.
Past articles - semester/term I
2-13-2011
New Classroom technology
Got a new netbook to use for writing for class. I chose one that was small and portable that had both netbook and tablet features. Its an inspiron duo, a netbook/tablet hybrid - new technology, its a regular netbook with a screen and a keyboard but the screen can flip over and you can close the netbook to become a tablet with touchscreen interface. It has way more power then a standard tablet with windows 7 on it, a 250G HD, and 2 Gigs of ram so I'm able to install all the standard music software unlike other tablets. I've been experimenting with it by using it in my classes with great results. I hooked up the band room stereo system to an extended quarter inch audio out and set up the cord right behind the podium so I can hook it into the netbook to play recordings at will. Since the netbook has a huge harddrive, I am able to put all my music (an extensive collection spanning many genres of music) on the harddrive and play it off the computer. I also installed my recording software on the computer and by using the built in microphone I was able to record the classes easily. Before, recording took alot more setup with microphones, mic stands, and all the different inputs. The computers builtin microphone does a remarkably great job at picking up the band after i tweaked it. I was then able to play music examples, record, and play back the recordings to the class that they just performed in a matter of seconds. The key is not wasting instruction time with tech setup. Immediate feedback and the ability for the students to assess their own performance on the fly seems to be highly effective and another strategy I can use in class. The only issues I have is I had to spend my own money to get the technology - I've been trying to get more computers in the band room for 3 years now, and the second issue is the computer is small and I have to keep track of it - easily stolen.
2-15-2011
Thoughts on onine article about private donations to public schools
This article goes along with the race to the top program which dangles a carrot of cash in front of school districts willing to come up with and adopt new ways of improving school reform. Illinois was one of the states that barely missed being chosen. The overall idea of philanthropic and private donations to public schools on the surface seems like a great idea in the economically dire atmosphere of todays financial woes. In my opinion, I am very cautious when it comes to private entities investing large sums of money. Money equals agendas and interests that will effect the way education is implemented in the future. For example, I attend a few conferences every year for music education. Most of the lectures and clinics are very imformative having educational strategies and best practices as the main point rightfully so. Every so often though i walk in and sit down anxiously awaiting another informative lecture and by the end I relize that all it had been was a huge advertisement for new book. It was a commercial, not a class. That is what education is going to turn into, one giant commercial trying to sway potential young consumers thoughts into their next purchase, oh yes, and some learning too. This is why I believe a federally and state controlled educational system is the better way with little to no bias, the student's education being number one. Even though we are far away from a completely privatised school system, the country is definitely headed in that direction.
2-15-2011
Thoughts on flatworm school reform article
Excellent article! I agreed with so much of this this long albiet tough read. The correlation between the industrial revolution and the school system was a great analogy, and simplifies what an aged approach we still have to our educational system. The idea of indeginous invention is in my opinion the way to go toward educational reform. The flatworm idea of replication is another great analogy. Something that works for one school is not going to work for every school in our diverse nation. So many factors ranging from ethnicity, to socioeconomic, to geographical, to cultural, to language effect how diverse our school systems actually are in the United states. Outside third party sources far removed from education are constructing educational reform, this reform is implemented by teachers and administration in public schools all across the nation, without close partnership with the third parties that came up with this reform to make the implementation process successful. The key is that every school is different, just like every student and student population are different. The faculty and staff know whats best for there school because they are there everyday experiencing the trials, tribulations, and triumphs. Indegenous invention promotes that making the schools faculty and staff a main part of the educational reform to improve the school. This does not disclude third parties, but makes them a secondary partner, increasingly closely involved at the school that they are partnered with. The schools themselves know whats best for them, and making this process a voluntary one and not a mandate creates true partners for change.
Replication does not work.
The constant one size fits all educational "fads" and trends do not work.
Third parties not involved with specific schools but selling educational curriculum and reform to them does not work.
Indeginous invention can work if the power is transfered into the schools hands without threat of closing down and firings.
Teachers are being trained to differentiate there instruction, and then assess their students using standardized tests, this is hypocritical
2-17-2011
Chapter 1: What I learned about school reform, The Death and Life of the American school System
This chapter was mainly about the history of Diane Ravitch's career and work where she researched the history of education in America. She talked about the reforms education has taken and how it has been shaped in the past 20 years. It seemed to detail a life of trial and error, of possible answers to the ailing educational systems, those solutions put into place, and eventually not working out. I liked her conlcusion of the movement on accountability and choice were not as important as currciulum and instruction, which I believe is at the very heart of what and how students learn. I found on the topic of school choice, Diane wrote "It might even harm public schools by removing the best students from schools in the poorest neighborhoods" wh9ich is definitely happening in chicago and even at my High school. i went recruiting to middle schools my first year and found that most of the high performing band students were all going to a few of the magnet schools and would never even consider going to the neighborhood school. Even the middle school teachers recommended to goto a different high school then a neigborhood high school at any cost, thus my school and other neighborhood schools getting the lowest performing and usual worst behaved of the student populations graduating middle school. On accountability, Diane writes "(accountability) was not raising standaards but dumbing down schools as states and districts strived to meet unrealistic targets." Initially this was the case at my high school and in some metrics that we are scored on for are school report, some of the targets are still very unrealistic - and this causes huge problems and in the end instruction and learning suffers. The intense focus on data and metrics can eventually become counter productive if not utilized, implemented, and presented to the faculty, staff, and students in the right way - and every school is different. I see the use of data as a guidepost to decision making and objective and goal making, a strategy for adaptability, not a stringent target that must be met, no matter how unrealistic, with massive consequences if failure occurs. Near the end of teh chapter Diane talks about making education interactive and making "learning lively," which i agree with 100% and try to do in my classes on a regular basis. Its this intense interaction with the students that keeps them engaged to the point where you can actually have the chance of delivering high level instruction and the students actually recieving it.
2-20-2011
Chapter 2: Hijcked...:The death and life of the American School system
This chapter is about how the movement for creating standards in each content area for education got morphed into standardized testing which dominates today's educational landscape. I found it interesting how the attack on the national history standards in 1994 had such a huge impact on what shaped later reform due to the volitility of the debate on standards after controversy rocked the nation on historical perspective and the standards - Disapointing. The book goes on to tell how after the controversy they eventually make watered down standards with no specifics and no requirement to follow so there would be no controversy - also very disapointing. When it was left up to the states, I felt some optimism with soem states getting more detailed and specific about the content and curriulum they wanted implemented across the board. I was especially intrigued with this because music has a very broad base of standards - making music teachers create their own curriculum. I have encountered problems with this because the middle schools students that graudate to my high school often have a varied array of skill sets, most extremely under performing. The fact that not some students NEVER had music classes at all is also a huge concern, let alone a progressive year to year study based on a cohesive curriculum. The result is every music class at my high school starts all over on square one, and can never progress to much of an advanced level - I dicovered this right away when i started teaching and was truley saddened. The rest of the chapter talks about the Nation at Risk report and its momentous influence on the policies and reform that followed, with politics constantly shaping that reform which led eventually into NCLB. The chapter goes on to explain how NCLB has a narrow focus only testing on math and reading, later science but not scored on the federal report card, was a federal mandate, not a report like ANAR, measured success only by test scores, concerned itself only with basic skills and improving reading and math scores - not knowledge or a well rounded education. I agree with many of the facts and opinions I have read, and having personal experience administering the tests, it is in the least a fascinating experiment but one with which I fear will yield little results as to teh furthering and improvement of our educational system. In the end the U.S. put into effect a system of standards that was vague with no backing or requirements to follow - to avoid political heat and endorsed standardized tests; that only test basic skills in math and reading and now science, and do not cover, have accountability, or put any importance on any of the other content areas. the chapter ends with the book highlighting some of teh basic tenets of ANAR that still apply today - more time spent doing student work, focus on curriculum, setting clear and resonable graduation requirements, improving teh quality of textbooks and tests, etc. which I agree with, its putting those ideas into practice and making them effective that is the underlying problem - if we actually chose to go into that direction instead of the direction we are currently heading.
2-21-2011
Watching the movie, Waiting for Superman. Favorite part is when they talk about the teacher that used a rap to teach measurements in science, and the part about the highly charismatic teachers at the KIPP schools. At my school i can't teach band the way I would teach it at a white suburban school, I had to highly adapt when i came to my school in Chicago after teaching in south rural florida and suburban Wisconsin. Students wouldn't pay attention, they would do whatever they want, classroom control was highly difficult when i started. using strategies of espirit de Corps and positive beheavior reinforcement - which I already did, but at an extreme level in the inner city, then was i starting to see success. I really had the rally the classroom around making progress, i had to sacrafice alot of teacher to class instruction in exchange for one on one attention to create fast and solid relationships with each student so they would get on board with what I was trying to do and teach. Banding the class together, including them in teh assessment process, and showing them through videotape and digital recording that they were making real progress, and then CONSANTLY reforcing those strategies I was able to be successful.
The movie overall is very interesting, but doesn't offer any real solutions and seems bias towards charter schools. The movie states only 1 in 5 charters are successful but quickly moves on, but constantly persuades the veiwer of how much better the charter schools are. It tries to expose many of the problems of education and most likely fuels the movements of radical change no matter what the consequences. A quote in the movie, "you can't have a great school without great teachers" I believe is true. i believe there is too much beauracracy governing education that creates problems, which is highlighted in the movie.
The scenes about the track coures is interesting, in how they track students based on test scores. They do that at our high school, but it seems if students score low on math, they should not be put in a high level math course until they have attained teh skills. On teh other hand, many of my students chose to blow of the recent Practice ACT because they said they were special ed and they would never get out of the course track, so why try. I thought about that alot the past few weeks. Low self esteem and teachers not teaching in a way that promotes positive behavior, optimism, or gives positive feedback when students do well is a problem. In band if students do well i have the entire class pat there feet, giving that student positive feedback, that strategy seemed to be highly impactful on motivation and learning.
In today's age whether it is right or not, students have the option to learn. if they choose to screw around, daze off, give no effort, not show up to class or shw up late, there are little or no consequences. Now It is the teachers job to be a motivational speaker, to be inspirational, to be an actor on stage performing, captivating there students into learning, into giving effort, into showing how to display correct behavior, into caring about there future. It is not enough to teach the material or be a master of your content area. Only teachers that realize all this and put forth tremendous effort will survive in the future educatioal system.
2-26-2011
General Journal
I enjoyed the part in graduate class on Wednesday night where we discussed the Ravitch book chapter 2. I thought Suzanne led the discussion quite well and had some interesting things to say that I had not thought of. I like talking education policy and like to hear others views - I don't often get to have those kind of conversations with friends or even colleagues and i wish I had more opportunities for debate with people that were up on current educational reform.
2-27-2011
Thoughts on article on "The next teacher's contract" of the Chicago tribune, feb. 26th, 2011
I think extending the school day is a good idea, but mandating it without contract negotiations will be problematic, most teachers, such as myself work till 5 or 6 oclock anyway on a daily basis, with no extra compensation.
Thoughts on the spend smarter suggestions:
Stop rewarding teachers for continuing there education is idiotic especially with rising tuition costs - other professions don't require you to keep going to school, pay the tuition out of your own pocket, and not get any increase in pay, just to keep the same position and pay as when you got out of undergrad.
Extending the school day with online classes sounds like a great idea that saves money while increasing student learning, BUT it in reality a computer is a poor substitute for a human instructor. I don't see this having a huge impact on student learning.
Pay the best teachers for superior performance. Thats great! How do we measure teacher performance? Research might show that years experience or degrees earned might not measure the effectiveness of a teacher, but research in merit pay has not shown to increase student learning or teacher effectiveness either.
Scale back severence pay, i could see this as a easy concession to give, but then when the unions lose there rights and they can fire anyone, this could have a huge effect.
Firing teachers quickly: I believe there should be less redtape then there is now when getting rid of bad teachers, BUT there should be red tape, making it too easy would have teachers being fired so schools could have cheaper labor sacraficing quality instruction, and teachers being fired so the prinicpals friend could get hired.
Make tenure harder to get/easy to lose - what is the point of tenure if it is so hard to get and easy to lose, it makes it meaningless. Harder to get I could see, raise the level of accomplishment or make it an option to work for, going aboe and beyond your regular duties, instead of getting it automatically. National boards would be an interesting requirement to get tenured.
3-1-2011
General Journal
Crisis at work today, my school never registered me on the Illinois High School Association website, so I can't register yet for the IL state band assessment, deadline is March 11th, which today got pushed to March 4th, a week earlier...yay me! So I'm scrambling to get the registration fee checks written out, having my admin register me, while planning in the most efficient way possible to have the most difficult music I have ever done at my school ready in 4 weeks for the concert assessment...on top of that its crunch time for national boards. I have been spending all my time writing and I'm getting worn out. I wrote for four hours after school yesterday and by the end my typing was not making sense and I kept having to go back and figure out what I was thinking, so that was it and I got some restt. I was also thinking about proncipals today, my principal is on his 4th year - the contract year, so I wonder if he will be staying or leaving, and if any proncipal could do that much better in a school where in my opinion 10% of the teachers are at maximum effectiveness, 60% are riding it out with average effectiveness, and 30% are not doing anything but sitting and talking with the kids while they collect there paycheck, which is usually twice as much as what I'm making..depressing. I'm sure if we did get a new principal it would be the luck of the draw whether he would support the arts or not, and if he didn't I'd be looking for a new job...so it goes...hammer to the anvil, steadyfast
3-12-2011
UIC Forum: Diane Ravitch lecture
I saw Diane Ravtch today at UIC, many of her points covered what was in the book which was expected. The CTU president was there and spoke at the beginning and end and it started to feel like a union rally. They talked about WI and continuing to protest even though the end of collective bargaining bill was passed. A few things Diane advocated was to first be as knowledgeable as possible about education policy and whats going on politically in order to effectively advocate education and change. She told everyone when talking about education reform, to call it corporate reform from now on, because thats what it has become. I thought that was cool. She handed out a flyer called a better system, which had bullet points of what education reform should look like. Diane said she is willing to be a leader in the movement to change the landscape of education and the direction that we are going in, and I believe she could be a powerful force. I have to say I am extremely impressed with Diane and firmly believe in the reforms she is putting forward. Some of these for chicago are:
1. A representative elected school board
2. a superintendant of CPS with educational experience and visionary leadership
3. TIF reform - return the 250 million dollars in TIFs taken from public schools each year
4. Fully qualified teachers on day one
5. Complete audit of cps evaluating state law, cps school policy, cps programs, central office management practices, area wide administrative management and budgeting practices
She talked about Arne Duncan not showing his face in WI, and partnering with the Gates and Broad foundations to end public education. She talked about the lack of rationality in education reform again and again stating policy that makes no sense, is not backed up by research, and is steering education into privatization. She emphasized Finland schools - 100% union, no standardized tests, and small class sizes attributing to being #1, and told teh audience to watch the movie Inside Job about wall street crooks instead of waiting for superman - because wall street and the billionaires are the ones taking over education.
3-21-2011
Watched Inside job
Crazy what financial greed is doing to our country, this movie fascinating and depressing at the same time, I can really see the social class structure in america going from rich, middle,poor to rich and poor, mostly poor in a short time, like the next ten years the way things are going, greed never ceases t amaze me, especially considering I personally dont value monetary gains - my life goal has always been about helping people, the best way I knew how to do that was medicne or education and education allowed me to incorporate music, a passion of mine, into my lifes work
3-23-2011
The life and death of the american education system: Capter 8: testing accountability
Testing is designed for one puprpose - to guage development in the specific content area the test is for, such as math, reading, etc. It could also be a guage as to the effectiveness of curriculum or special programs incoporated to improve student academics.
Testing is used in COMBINATION with other ways to assess student learning to most effectively plan and implement instruction. Testing was not designed to measure teacher effectiveness and skill - the testing companies even state this, so why are the politicians using tests as a measure for teacher pay, hirings/firings/ and whether schools get funding. i dont understand.
The Civic Comittee of the commercial Club of Chicago released a study in 2009 about exaggerated test scores, Chicago saw huge increases from 2004-2009, these scores were inflated because a new testing company was hired, a new test was implemented, and the new test had a lower cut score, yet politicians still took credit for these exagerrated increases in student learning and test scores...again the media and politicians have there own perspectives, and then manipulate the mass society into believeing anything they want
Educators and the education community should handle education - why are we giving control to outside entities?
I found it interesting that the National test and goals panel got turned down in Congress in the early 1990's and then was abolished by 2000.
Test based accountability corrupts the reason for testing - a measure of student performance
Punitive accountability = increased corruption (gaming the system) peoples livlihoods are on the line - data manipulation on every level, local state, federal - people will do what they can to save themselves
Positive accountability seemed the most effective but this trend seemed to go by the wayside as punitive accountability became popular: "shutting down bad schools" seems like a good political move - Politics corrupts education
I found the following to be most profound in this chapter:
We cannot define what matters in education ONLY by what can be measured.
I liked the statistics on when they started measuring doctors mortality rates, and doctors did not do risky procedures because they did not want there rating to be effectd, and possibly lose there job or accredidation, so instead, people that might have lived, died. why has our society gone the path of 100% measurement and accountability - there is no work ethic or moral or civic duty anymore, and if it exists it hides itself in the shadows
4-22-2011
Just started reading up on AUSL: Academy for urban school leadership, a program designed for turnaround schools, new teachers, new admin. same problems - these non-for profits scare me - but this is teh direction Rahm is going in..more on ausl later
4-23-2011
Education Chicago Politics: "Corporate reform"
One of the web articles made it sound like Brizard is moving to Chicago after not being able to put his policy changes through due to protests by parents, communities, and the union, but now coming to Chicago with a handpicked board by the mayor-elect, there should be no obstacles to stand in his way...scary...The only board member chosen which seems to have education experience is Andrea Senz, all the others are MBAs and AUSL associates
4-24-2011
Comments on article "Court upholds ruling on improperly fired CPS teachers
I found it a definite breach of contract with the union when CPS decided to let go tenured teachers due to budget cuts and then not reinstate or give opportunities for emloyment when that became available, when I heard about this I thought about what tenured actually meant if a loop holes existed like budget cuts to circumvent the right of tenure. Despite the courts ruling which upholds on improper firing of tenured teachers, the article states 417 of the 750 some tenured teachers were hired back, while 500 new (cheaper) teachers were hired. CPS seems to be playng the budget game by influxing new teachers that are half as expensive to staff then 20 year veterans. Who needs quality when you can save money - our students. How about taking that same philosophy towards admin. salaries?
4-24-2011
Comments on "Thoughts on merit pay"
the big concern I have about merit pay is the way teachers are evaluated to recieve this pay - the number one evaluating measure I see is standardized tests, which directly contradict staements made by testing companies that there tests are "not designed to measure teacher effectiveness" but are designed to evaluate students achievement and skill sets. Why then are the politicians pushing the standardized tests to be a tool for merit pay? I suspect the answer is because there is no curremt effective tool for measuring teacher effectiveness which is a looming question in the broad context of education policy.As I have seen in a myriad of other issues, politics plays teh blame game and teachers are easy targets. How long will teachers, the profession, and most importantly the students suffer before politicians realize teachers are not the problem but rather larger and deeper societal issues that severely effect education to a detrimental effect. The article goes on to explain studies where merit pay has been intiated with little or no results. When I was in florida teaching they instituted a program based on merit pay, by the end of the year I felt like it was a lottery drawing or a popularity contest of who got the cash, not really based on any conclusive evidence or data. I would propose merit pay for all, as in a general increase in salary to attract highly educated and talented people to the profession of teaching. I believe this would have a larger effect on students learning and development.
5-22-11 Larry, I'm not sure when you posted your resume, but I am glad you did. It looks very impressive and would get attention at a glance. I have been "tweeking" my resume for this upcoming school year. I need some instant attention also, so I will take something from yours. Your name in big bold letters and the font size, kind of says: I'm confident and pay some attention to me.
Larry's Lessons: The trials, tribulations, and triumphs of a music educator
Email: Larrzg@hotmail.comBlog: LaurenceGlenzer@wordpress.com
NLU Term III Assignments
NLU Term II Assignments
Deborah Meier: a brief biography, Novemeber 10th, 2011
NLU Term I Assignments
Resume/CV
General thoughts and reflections on current events in education
5-14-2012
Thoughts and reflection: Maxine Greene’s “How do we think about our craft”
This article brings up a few interesting comments and points throughout its complex thoughts on how teachers think about the art of teaching. One of the interesting quotes that Maxine uses in her article comes from the famous Pedagogist and philosopher John Dewey, stating “the conscious adjustment of the new and old is imagination.” I believe this refers to learning in such a way as people use prior experience (the old) as a way to interpret the world, combining this past experience with new experiences and trying to make sense of this input. Imagination comes when one actively brings together past knowledge and new knowledge to create new ideas. This philosophical idea of imagination and how it may work according to Dewey has everything to do with how the learning process takes place, imagination playing an integral role in how students gain knowledge, new skills, abilities, and grasp concepts in general. When we think about the craft of teaching “higher level questioning” often focuses on imagination, especially in the case of hypothesizing. Maxine states in the article “We may find ourselves reconstructing familiar techniques, honing a set of unused skills, and-significantly-using our imaginations in what turns out to be an effort to improve our craft.” From the teacher perspective imagination is crucial in tackling the needs of our students, finding different ways to better suit their individual learning styles and teach them in the most effective way possible. Teachers must have imagination to constantly construct and reconstruct lessons and adapt daily to the challenges there students put forth.
When Maxine states “Nor, we now realize, is it appropriate to view potential learners as
deficit systems, empty vessels awaiting our ministrations,” this directly correlates with Paolo Frierre’s book Pedagogy of the Oppressed in describing the banking method of education which has seen its prominence even in modern day education and today’s schools. As far as realizing that this model of education is not appropriate I would rather disagree due to it still be implemented wide spread and even increasingly now with the advent of standardized testing and test prep classes, which many are directly “banking” the necessary information to obtain higher scores and increase statistical data. Data that schools and more recently teachers are now being judged. I believe this is having a detrimental effect on our educational system that will not truly be realized until years to come.
Maxine goes on to talk about beginning realizations such as “Gradually becoming aware of all this, we are beginning to recognize that every young person must be encountered as a center of consciousness, even as he or she is understood to be a participant in an identifiable social world. Each one may be encountered as a being who is at once a distinctive individual and someone whose consciousness opens out to the common, an intersubjective world in which he or she is inextricably involved,” which I interpret as the balance between individual and community. On one hand teachers must differentiate, in essence individualize their instruction to most effectively meet students learning needs considering everyone learns in different ways. The distinctive individual is important to the teachers pedagogy, the distinctive individual as a concept is also important to impart on the student, and with that said, comes the intersubjective world where the distinctive individual must also be a part of a community with many diverse and complex social constructs within it. The main idea Maxine seems to be getting at is a more individualistic approach to modern day education, not just teaching a class of students, but rather a group of diverse individuals that form a class. This is the philosophy now being adopted, whether it is being implemented and what effect it is having still seems a question unanswered.
Another interesting piece of Maxine’s article is the following writing “Anybody who sets out to teach his pupils to be critical must expect constantly to be embarrassed. He can also expect to be harassed, by his class, by his headmaster, by parents. If he gives up the idea of teaching his students to be critical and salves his conscience by training them in skills, this is not at all surprising. But he should at least be clear about what he is doing, and even more important, what he is not doing."26 Clearly, this is another challenge to think about our craft.” I believe this piece expresses the challenge of teaching students to be critical thinkers. Maxine points out that teaching students to be critical can lead to being critical of the teacher’s performance. This can lead to a challenge of authority in the classroom where the lack of authority could lead to poor classroom management and not being able to effectively communicate or implement the lesson being taught. On the other hand, not teaching students to be critical can be an extreme detriment to their assessment of themselves, their learning, and the work they accomplish. This beckons my philosophies about how instruction in the classroom seems to be changing in the last few years. Being critical means high expectations, and often hard truths about the learning students accomplish and how they progress. With major pushes towards positive behavioral strategies in the classroom focused primarily on positive feedback, this can lack a critical nature in its delivery. To be critical can lead to negative emotions such as students exhibiting frustration and low self esteem self assessing their work as not being good enough because of the critical nature of the assessment. I have often found in my own experience it is an immense challenge to be critical of my students, and teach them to be critical of their own work and learning, while delivering this concept in a way that is positive. For example, Johnny plays a short musical excerpt out of a beginning music book, he plays half of the song with correct pitch, but his rhythm is bad, his tempo fluctuates, he does not play the written articulation or dynamic markings, and the latter half of the song has many pitch errors making it unrecognizable. As a teacher, would being critical mean that I explain in detail all these errors picking apart Johnny’s performance? As positive behavioral strategies have taught me in my learning of instructional practice, no, I would not. I would approach this scenario by first concentrating on the first half of the song and the attributes of that performance that were excellent, praising Johnny as I reviewed his work. I would then point out one or two of the major errors, and let Johnny try again focusing just on one or two of the problems. When Johnny corrected those errors after some brief coaching, I would again use positive reinforcement and move on to the other errors Johnny made. Am I being critical using this approach? What if I had ran out of time using this strategy therefore not being as critical in my assessment? Would not laying everything out in complete critical detail be to Johnny’s dismay, shattering his self esteem and motivation? But would it teach Johnny to be critical? Is my layered approach of positive reinforcement combined with a step based approach of critiquing a better way of implementing my instruction? From a psychological and emotional sense maybe, but to a pedagogical sense? These are many questions I still ponder to answer as I too reflect on my craft as Maxine Greene has done.
4-20-2012
Beyond the Classroom Study: Reflection
Laurence Glenzer III
Listening and reading articles about failing education in Chicago by its political machine and the media, along with drastic policies being put forward and constant slander on the teaching profession, this study is was sorely needed. This is a study that actually analyzes what teachers do, how they spend there time, and other statistics that outline what goes on in the schools, I believe is a step forward in educating the public and politicians about teachers, the people on the frontlines of education with a direct connection to the student population and which have the largest effect on learning. According to the study, with an 8 hour and 53 minute on average work day broken up into 5 hours and 38 minutes of teaching related activities and 3 hours and 3 minutes of non-teaching related activities, these could be important statistics to look at when considering what will improve student learning. Over 3 hours of non-teaching related activities for a teacher is excessive. Of the teaching related activities, actual instruction takes place only 3 hours and 23 minutes for the high school mean, with 45 minutes for assessing student work and another 20 for giving curriculum assessments, that’s over an hour of assessment taken away from instruction everyday. Assessment is indeed important in the instructional process in informing the teacher the progression of the students and how to adapt and plan lessons in the future, this too seems excessive, and seems to only be getting worse with the continuing emphasis on standardized testing.
This study also states that it did not include high stakes test prepping and administering into the standard school day, which if they had done so would have reduced instructional time by another hour from around 4 hours down to 3, (page 14). When you add up all the hours of excessive assessment and test prepping for the core subjects over the course of just one school year, a massive amount of time has been spent that could have been used for learning and moving forward in subject material. These statistics show places where changes can be made to increase instructional time, instead of merely extending the school day.
Another statistic that stood out was the amount of time “210 weekly minutes sorting data” to 45 minutes a week collaborating with other teachers. The common core standards and other initiatives designed to promote teacher collaboration I believe are steps in the right direction, but with these initiatives comes with it increasing reliance on data collection and analysis, which adds excessive amounts of time to a teachers day, time that could be spent in regards to instructional matters. The study indicates an average of 2 hours of work after school is over, and 3 hours and 45 minutes during weekends showing teachers are already working well outside the hours required of them, while politicians slash pensions, benefits, and salary increases and pay scales in general. The teaching profession breeds passion in its members, working off the clock because they believe in the ideology and sociological impact of the work. When you take away the means to support oneself financially to the point of teachers having to work multiple jobs to thrive and have a family of there own, your cutting down the profession to a menial hourly job where workers clock and in and out for a paycheck and that’s it. The teaching profession is slowly turning into this concept as politicians use education as an issue to further their political game and rhetoric. This study outlines the extra work teachers put into their profession, and also highlights the time management currently in place, which I believe if tweaked could have a significant impact on student learning.
11-6-2011
Thoughts on article: Teaching performance in the context of truly disadvantaged schools in Chicago, Elaine Allensworth
This article states the context in which teachers work sets the stage for them to be effective and want to stay in their school. This statement needs to be encouraged and this article gets it right on every point. Currently the beaurocracy mindset is to incentivise teachers through a merit system among others, and create methods of identifying and removing weak teachers to create a better school. This article overviews and gives statistics analyzing major concerns of the profession such as teacher mobility, work environment, school and classroom context, school climate, community, and the focus on individual teachers in todays debates on teacher performance. Concerning teacher mobility, the article states 85% of teachers nationwide stay in their school year to year, and Chicago is at 80%, but what is alarming is within 5 years Chicago loses almost half its teaching staff, a very interesting point. This section goes on to state problems with high staff turnover rates such as organizational problems, discontinuity with professional development, shortages in key subjects, and loss of teacher leadership. Others I can think would be inconsistancy in instruction, poor staff teamwork, low staff morale, and weakened relationships with community and parents.
Work environment is the next section in the article focusing on poor working conditions for schools in Chicago in relation to staff mobility, teacher teamwork and morale, quality of instruction, and overall school climate. Many of the statements in the article seem like no-brainers: Teachers want to be able to work with other teachers - collaboration. Teachers want to be supported by administration in there efforts to instruct and create an effective learning environment. Teachers want to feel they have a real stake in making the school successful, and be trusted by their principal as an instructional leader. The artcile cites schools that make the most improvement gains overall are the schools where teachers work collectively on improving instruction, school leadership in inclusive, and focused on teaching. Teachers want parental support at their school, teachers want to stay at schools where students feel safe and their are less behavioral problems. I use the term "no-brainers" becaue these traits I have just listed seem obvious and absolute neccessities to having a school succeed, ESPECIALLY in the urban environment of Chicago. If these issues are focused on, how to implement becomes the biggest hurdle, if not focused on, what chance does a school have to improve?
School and classroom context is the next section of the article focusing on five areas that research says improves student learning the most: leadership, professional capacity, partnerships with families and community, learning climate, and instruction. The most interesting part of this section is comments on a study concerning teacher qualifications and student learning gains. The study found that in general, the association bewteen teacher qualifications and learning gains depended completely on the school context. BUT, there was no association bewteen teacher qualifications and learning gains at schools with poor learning climates. In other words, school context is a massive piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving schools. You can have the best teachers in the world, but if they are put into a school thats climate is unsafe, has a tradition of poor attendance, broken down equipment and facilities, etc. it won't turn around the school into a success. This leads into the next section of school climate - again many of the comments seem to me as obvious - students need to feel safe, well yes students, and everyone needs to feel safe so they can focus at the job at hand. Students that come from areas that have low poverty and crime tend to have safer school environments - in essense schools sare small communites - micro communities - within the larger social structure - and mirror that structure. If you have a middle upper class population, there children will adopt social behavior of there parents - which had to uphold certain social behaviors to get to the middle/upper class. Children of high crime and poverty areas are going to uphold the social norms of there environment, thus they exist in the "micro" school community. As I've said again and again in this blog, readings, questions, answers, all swing back to the larger social question of the massive impact poverty has on our society - which is becoming increasingly evident in our school system.
Community based solutions to teaching effectiveness:
The focus on individual teachers:
Paralells to educational theorists:
10-15-2011
Mr. Glenzer on Mr. Dewey
Three things I find most applicable to my situation while reading Dewey are his dissection of education into two parts, psychological and social, focus on stimulation of the child’s powers, and his ideas of the use of imagery that teachers must evoke in students.
Being a music teacher and in particular band director I believe immensely in the combined use of psychological or cognitive instructional strategies combined with creating a social environment and atmosphere that is conducive to learning, belonging, and espirit de corps.
Dewey’s idea of stimulating and training a child’s powers is an interesting concept. Many teachers might believe there students walk into their classes a blank slate, and thus must be infused with information throughout the year. I believe the students come in with past experiences that can benefit them; they come with powers, i.e. strengths and weaknesses, which must be identified and nurtured. Stimulating the strengths of students can improve self esteem and confidence, stabilize foundational concepts already understood, and have an impact on weaknesses that still need to be developed. The biggest impact of stimulating a child’s powers in my opinion is that the student understands these powers and connects with the concept of learning, enjoys the process of learning, the value of hard work, leading to becoming a lifelong learner.
Dewey’s ideas of imagery are fascinating, mainly the teacher translating content into imagery the student will think about. I always considered this one of the goals of teaching, having a student imagine the concept therefore understanding it. One can approach teaching a simple concept in a million different ways, hoping one of the ways connects with that individual learner. I believe the first step is understanding how the students will receive your instruction, and in taking Dewey’s ideas, how they will actually think about what you’re trying to teach. “Put yourself in the other person’s shoes” is an old saying that comes to mind when I think about what Dewey is trying to say. Many teachers use this strategy, which can be effective, but keeping in mind every single student has their own individual way of processing information, gain skill, and learn.
Two ways Dewey impacts my teaching situation is building a band program rather than just teaching individual band classes. Creating a band family, a social architecture for which my students can learn both cognitively and thrive socially is of utmost importance to the success of not only the classes but the performances musically. I akin this to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, where my goal is creating moments of self actualization, the highest need of the pyramid, during performances, where these moments can last the rest of the students lives, having a lasting impression in experiencing an educational and artistic experience. Creating a social atmosphere of close friendships between students and strong mentoring between conductors and musicians can make these moments possible.
An area where Dewey and I might disagree may be the aspect of creating citizenship through public education. Although I do not quite dismay at this concept, I don’t necessarily believe education has to have this duty of creating a certain populace to fill the needs of society. I see education as more of an institution with a directive on how to be a human being. Education in America as a public institution controlled by state and federal governments, it is obvious to see why these ideas have intertwined with Dewey’s philosophies. I also believe Dewey also was involved with economics and the corporate interests in education in America, which essentially wanted schools to train a better work force for the future.
10-10-2011
Marzano powerpoint presentation: could we use more time
This powerpoint was a presentation Marzano gave for the Butler school district. It centered on time management, data analysis, school effectiveness and what attributes, and a concept called DIBELS for reading and language instruction. I believe marzano's statement about reducing supplemental instruction, and tearing down the curriculum to the most important aspects to deliver instruction within the time alotted during the school year. Too often teachers are slammed with so many initiatives at once trying to cover everything, which in my mind makes no sense, and in the end dumbs down the curriculum and reduces the chance of student learning and achievement. Having a narrow focus across the board focusing on a schools weakness through data analysis can be helpful, while in turn not overwhelming teachers and staff. Analyzing and focusing on what makes any particular school effective, organizing around those goals, and implementing them in a focused way can increase achievement. In the end there's just not enough time in most cases, but management, organization, and focus can help.
10-10-2011
Thoughts on Deweys Pedagogic Creed
I found this creed to be fascinating in regards to its relevance today when being written over a century ago, and the fact that I concur with many of Dewey’s philosophies and beliefs. The creeds foundation is based on the belief that "true education comes through the stimulation of the child's powers by the demands of the social situations in which he finds himself.” In general Dewey believes in the marriage of psychology and sociology to form education. The social emphasis in education is one point Dewey constantly reinforces throughout his creed.
The two sides of education, psychological and social, Dewey states are organically related and that education cannot be regarded as a compromise between the two. In preparing students for their future, Dewey believes to prepare students to command themselves; “to train students in the use of all there capacities, eye, ear, hand may be tools to be readily used.” This idea can somewhat contradict current trends in education where focus on test prep is a dead end in regards to any kind of practical skill gain.
Dewey defines the school institution as a social one that should be in its essence a community organization. The building of community in schools lends itself to Dewey’s ideas of the social half of education. Dewey believes many schools fail because they neglect this fundamental principle of the school as a form of community life. He believes the social interaction and community that can go on in school is the moral trainer and educator that prepare students to work together and succeed as an individual in greater society.
Dewey’s ideas about literature are interesting, in that he states that literature should follow upon experience, such as students would read a story about kids going camping and nature, only after they have actually gone camping. He believes literature is the reflex of expression and interpretation of social experience, and should not precede that experience. I found this interesting in that this statement could relate to Vygotsky's scaffolding, or building upon prior knowledge to gain a greater understanding, however I could be interpreting this incorrectly.
Dewey’s belief on the instruction of history is that he it is of value due to representation of phases of social life and growth. Again Dewey constantly pulls everything to this idea of social life and experience.
In article IV. The nature of method Dewey talks a lot about imagery and how more teachers should think less about the information or skills there students are receiving, but HOW they are receiving it, through imagery. I found this to be fascinating. I feel many teachers can do this through multiple instructional strategies such as audio, visual, and sensory activities that all work together to form an image in the students mind that they can grasp on to while building on previous knowledge of the content area. In this section Dewey also talks about interests and how important they are to a student’s educational growth. Montessori and others adopt this belief as one of their core principles, basing instruction purely off of student interest, i.e. large sections of open-ended time for students to explore there own particular interests. Finally in this section he talks about emotion and the role it plays in experience, as long as it is genuine.
The final article is about social reform. Dewey believes education is the fundamental method of social progress and reform. I hold this belief as well and it is one of the reasons I became a teacher, because I felt it would of have the most overall impact in society. I found Dewey’s last statement of the creed interesting because of its obvious religious implications. He proclaims teachers are the prophet of the true god and the usherer in of the kingdom of god. I have to assume he was a religious man, and this was written in 1897, as well as many of the educational institutions being religious based at that time and still today. As to the relation between pedagogy, religion, and god, I fail to see the connections, other than paying homage to his lord at the end of his creed.
10-05-2011
Theories of Childhood, introduction to Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky, book Overview
Thought: Many of these theorists grapple with the concept of teacher role in the classroom, with many advocating a student centered classroom where the teacher sets the stage and acts as an observer and guide, in various extremes of how the teacher should interact with students, or at all. The student centered classroom is labeled as “progressive” education in that it departs from the “traditional” education format of the teacher reciting out of a text book while students learn by rote, memorization, and repetition, and are not allowed to speak or interact during lecture.
Dewey
- Observation
- Teacher planning/direction
- Know children
- Organization
- Plan well
- Documentation
- Teacher knowledge of content area
- Make sense of world for students through greater knowledge and experience
- Purposeful curriculum
- Build on prior learning/experience (scaffolding – Vygotsky)
- Old vs. new not argument – what is of educational value
- Educational vs. mis-educational experiences
Montessori- Child-centered environment
- Focus on environment for students and let them experiment
- Very little teacher intervention/interaction
- Child sized tools
- Focus on sensory experience
- Have accessible materials – low shelves, small chairs/tables
- Beauty and order in classroom – aesthetics
- Children have responsibility and competence
- Learn by doing
- Exploration/experimentation
- Open-ended scheduling/ time slots
- Children must have interest in work
- Intrinsic
Erikson- Stages of psychosocial development
- Focus on emotional and social development and health
- Age 0-1 : Trust vs. Mistrust
- Internal/external
- Hold babies during feeding
- Respond to distress
- Support attachment
- Primary caregivers
- Ages 2-3: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
- Initiate choice and exploration
- Allow swings between independence and dependence
- Give simple choices
- No false choices
- Define clear limits
- Inititive vs. Guilt
- Sense of purpose
- Activiely focused, less defiant
- Encourage independence
- Focus on gains not mistakes (positive behavioral support)
- Use real tools for real world activities
Piaget- Cognitive focus
- Constructivist
- Open-ended questioning/activities
- Exploration
- Recess
- Nature
- Formal operational
- Concrete operations
- Reverseibility
- Preoperational
- No multi task
- Object permanence
- Learn by experience/ doing things
Vygotsky- Zone of proximal development (ZPD)
- Distance between what a student can do on their own and when help is needed
- Importance in observation of students
- Qualitative/Quantitative instruction/assessment
- Observation of children just as valid as test scores
- Social cognition
- Scaffolding – building on past experience/knowledge
- Encourage discussion/conversation – teacher observes
- Social interaction
9-26-2011The beliefs and behaviors of star teachers
I found this article to interesting as I had hoped I would display many of teh described qualities of a star teacher.
Belief #1: beliefs about school environment (administrative duties etc - non-teaching)
I totally agree and believe I hold the star teachers approach, in that paperwork definitely makes my job more difficult and time consuming, but I have learned to deal with it, use it to my advantage in how I organize my career. After teaching for six years I believe I have come to grips with the lack of decent work facilities and environments, or I would have been long gone. I believe I also try to impart on my students how some of these things are a fact of life and dealing with them in an effective and low stress manner can make you successful in any field they choose to persue.
Belief #2: Whom they should teach
I definitely hold the star behavior in this belief in that I see problem and special needs students as a challenge and am excited to change and adapt my approaches to teaching to service them. The job would turn very mundane without students to challenge the teacher, curriculum, instructional strategies, and classroom. With this said one must be an effective teacher able to handle a classroom effectively in order to make these adjustments in the moment as well as in the planning stages of instruction.
Belief #3: What and how to teach
Stars believe that goals of the school are several and varied, quitter/failures believe the school is successful if it teaches the basics....this one seems to be a no-brainer - why would any teacher want to be in a school where you just teach the basics, the bare minimum, and think that successful? It would be ludicrous to think that way living in the vast world that surrounds us. It would be boring and mundane.
Belief #4: Stars teach connected subject matter that grows in complexity, quitters/failures dumb down curriculum and teach disconnected lesson
the qutters failures must be terrible teachers if they don't connect there lessons or grow in complexity, its the whole point of learning - build on foundations and further your knowledge - that seems to the basic definition of learning
Belief #5: Stars are committed to the scientific method, quitters not
This one was interesting for me teaching music - but according to the definition of the scientific method, it is a method of inquiry and investigation of phenomena - which I do everyday in my classes - the phenomena being musical works and music performance on any given instrument.
belief #6: How to deal with students
Stars believe in motivation - I'm definitely a star here in that everything I do has some sort of motivational aspect. I need to give students a reason to want to be in the classroom and that just comes down to motivating them and making the experience something they intriniscally value.
Belief #7: Stars are knowledgeable of human devleopment - quitters failures attribute misbehavior as a deficiency or failing.
This seems like education 101 in that all teachers - to become teachers - must be knowledgeable in human growth and development. Quitter/failures must of overslept that class and most likely weren't fascinated enough with child development to keep up on reading many many great books that are constantly being released on the subject. Child behavior - educational psychology is a pillar of the profession.
Belief #8: Stars seek out answers concerning inadequate instruction in themselves, curriculum, or teacher methods, quitters blame others - students, parents, families, ethnicity
Totally a star here, always relfecting on my practice and how I can improve. Although I do believe that bad parents, students with severe learning disabilities, or socioeconomic/poverty issues can hugely impact instruction - but I do not blame that for inadequate instruction, rather I choose to deal with it, adapt, and find new ways of grappling with the problem. Thoughts anyone?
Belief #9: Stars willing to make mistakes
I am human, perfection does not exist in nature, and I show my students that I am not infallible. I make mistakes all the time, and I have to admit to them so students are not misdirected
Belief #10: Stars believe effort makes schools successful - quitters believe innate ability
This one is an interesting one. I definitely believe effort is the way to go - and innate ability is the easy way out - and I believe if you combine innate ability WITH effort, you have something very powerful
Belief #11: relationship built on respect, not love
I definitely agree with the stars on building a working relationship and rapport of respect. In order to not have favoritism, and the fact that your never going to love ALL your students - creating an environment of respect creates equality
Belief #12: Stars believe school is a matter of life and death for students - quitters like having a secure job
I wouldn't be in the profession if I didnt feel like a star for this belief...The whole point of me embarking on this profesession is to help people in teh most impactful way possible - which I believe is teh profession of education
9-15-2011
Thoughts on debate : Karen Lewis VS Brizard
I was very excited about this debate but should of known it would be a dance of politics and generalities. Karen lewis came off as condascending many times, Brizard, quiet, reserved, and polite. I thought the Chicago tribune mediator surprisingly did a good job of keeping things going in a interesting direction as the debate was alot shorter than I had hoped. Some issues that arose were teachers urging the Union to lead the conversation on education policy in Chicago instead of taking a reactionary role in almost everything that hits the headlines. Merit pay was brought up which I thought was ridiculous as their is no conclusive research that merit pay is effective in promoting student learning, and since our teacher evaluation system needs desperate critiquing, and a huge question looming in the educational landscape is how do schools measure teacher effectiveness, how will merit pay be distributed and by what measure? The union and CPS agreed the evaluation system needed to be overhauled. Conversation about poverty came up quite a bit proclaiming Chicago needs a reality check on its current state of poverty, segregation, and social welfare system, which i agree with, and a central topic which leading educators are screaming about in regards to student achievement. The disparity between selective enrollment schools and neighborhood schools was brought up with no real plans or solutions on making educaion equal in the city, just general statement about how the city will improve every childs education no matter the school...but how? The longer school day was included in the title of the debate and seemed to be the central issue. Lewis proclaimed no clear data on increased time equaling increased achievement, where Brizard said the opposite. Lewis cryed foul of CPS manipulation in implementing the program this year, saying she would agree to the longer school day if it was given time to be planned out, which i agree with. A few people came up with questions after writing essays to the trobune and being selected to speak at the debate, one student from northside prep, outlining the dispairty among selective enrollment vs. neighborhood schools - equality in education in Chicago. Another union teacher that called out karen concerning dismayment with union actions and behavior, and not doing enough to root out bad teachers. It is a fine line you must follow when trying to root out bad teachers from effective ones, and not losing rights along the way, a current and continuing debate that will not soon end. overall I was glad I attended the event but came away with not clear answers and just more questions as to where the state of education is going in Chicago Public schools.
7-5-2011
Thoughts on article: Full Inclusion, educational foundations book
Inclusion has been an interesting challenge to tackle in my classroom, having band students that can barely write there names, and often I am constantly trying to think of new ways to teach music. My back up plan is always one on one instruction with students that don't understand or can't get past a certain topic. To not fall prey to the often used argument that teaching special education students in a general ed classroom can take away from the advancement of "typical" students, I have come up with and used many teaching strategies to keep the entire class engaged while I am giving my attention one on one to students that need it, special ed or not. A few of these ways are as follows:
1. While working one on one, give the rest of teh class specific objectives to tackle on your own, such as "Practice measures 9-15 for 4 minutes" or "find the hardest measure in the piece and work on that for 2 minutes" while I step off the podium the entire class starts to practice, often in small groups helping each other out (peer mentoring) and I am able to briefly work one on one. the trick is to do seamless transitions so that the class does not loose momentum or attentiveness.
2. Assign advanced students solos and etudes to challenge them outside of the regular band music that they can practice during "off-podium" times
3. Make peer mentoring a normal part of the routine in the band rehearsal environment, change seating if necessary despite chair placement
4. After school lessons (tutoring) is an incredible way to keep students on track
5. Specific practice assignments for each instrument (practice homework)
6. Teacher PATIENCE! Don't give up! Adapt and learn from how your students learn, learn multiple ways of teaching a single concept
Full Inclusion Handout:
Full Inclusion as a Disclosing Tablet, Revealing the flaws inour present system
Educational Foundations, page 65
This article does a good job atdescribing inclusion and how it functions today, how it has transformed, andwhere it needs to go, describing myths, with the centralized theme beingadaptable successful teaching as a core component. The title “Full Inclusion as a disclosingtablet” refers to a dental technique – a tablet chewed after brushing, thatidentifies the areas missed by brushing. In comparison, the implementation of full inclusion identifies the flawsin our general education classes as a whole
Discussion Questions
Educationalterminology, evolution of theory, and semantics
According to the article, inclusionsurfaced from many different avenues, twenty years ago first encompassing theterm, mainstreaming: “putting selected students with disabilities into generaled classrooms when a good “match” could be made.” Mainstreaming turned into integration,essentially meshing two separate programs together, general and special education. Through trial and error we have now come upwith inclusion: “changing existing classroom structures so that all studentscan be served within a unified system.” The history and development of inclusion has had many heroes includingparents, teachers, and administrators that have shaped and promoted themovement, as well as promoted new ways of thinking concerning curriculum andinstruction.
Final Thought: To be a great teacher you must be highlyeffective at individualizing your instruction to every single student.
7-4-2011
Thoughts on article: The banking model of education, educational Foundations book
The Banking Concept of Education
Educational Foundations, page 99
This was a very complex article covering deep issues aboutthe society we live in, and our broader education philosophy, which the authordescribes as �Banking� education, as opposed to the problem-posing method. To describe lightly these two approaches,banking education is the practice of the teacher as narrator, dispensingknowledge while the students collect it, as receptacles. For example, a common practice in teachingfor any subject would be guided notes. The teacher displays notes on an overhead, while the students copy itdown as the teacher talks about the notes out loud. The students write down, memorize, andassimilate the specific information required for the course, and then aretested on those facts. Problem-posededucation is where students are given a real world problem, and work as a classor in small groups to discover solutions through dialogue, as the teacherbecomes a participant along with the students, an observer, or a guide towardspossible outcomes. This article describesdeeper implications of a banking education system, such as creating automatons,severely inhibiting creative thought and critical thinking, and losing sense ofreal world skills and problems. AlthoughI believe banking education does exist to a large extent, problem posededucation also exists in many lesson plans of current teachers, and themovement towards student centered classrooms contributes to the idea ofdialogue and real world problem solving where students become teachers andteachers become students. The largerquestions the author poses are those of how are society in general isconstructed. Students are made to learnspecific skills and knowledge, and thus that knowledge is applied to careers inwhich they make money and contribute to an economy and social structure inwhich builds upon itself, essentially a capitalistic society. �Oppressors� stated in the article are thepolitically and monetarily powerful who promote this system to where freethinking and transformation of societal norms becomes impossible, andmaintaining of power for the powerful becomes inevitable.
7-1-2011
Thoughts on the article: The idea of Summerville,Educational Foundations book
The idea of Summerhill
Educational Foundations Book, page 165
When I started readingthis article, the title, the Ideaof Summerhill, I felt that this was a fictional school. In our day in age with so many differentkinds of schools, and yet all these varieties, public, private, charter, religious,montesori, etc. still have many things in common. Montesori schools seem to be most similar tothe Summerhill idea.
As I read on alas thisschool is not fictional, but a real school in England. I think there should be schools likeSummerhill, trying new things, exploring other avenues, and there are manythings I agree with in this article, and some not. The concept of doing away with fear and hate,embracing total freedom, and encouraging, which the article does not directlystate, but is obvious, is intrinsic learning, are great things to incorporate intoa school. In fact intrinsic learning,which is a main goal of my instruction at a public school, is in fact the centralidea at Summerhill. Making the “school fit the child instead of the child fitting the school,” is another centralpoint in this article and one that can promote success in learning. Although Summerhill does this drasticallythrough many means discussed in the article, I believe our public schools aregoing in this direction as well, through developments in individual educationplans, individualized instruction, and after school programs that match studentinterests such as the after school matters program in Chicago, which mighttransform into a extension of the school day in the near future with pendinglegislation underway and political action by our new mayor Rahm Emmanuel.
Near the end of thearticle, I strongly believed in this quote, “the function of the child is to live his own life – not the life that hisanxious parents think he should live, nor a life according to the purpose of aneducator who thinks he knows what’s best.” I believe we have become trapped and complacent in an old system whereeveryone must fit the same mold, must all know the same facts, figures, andknowledge, with the assumption that this will prepare each and every one of ourstudents for a successful future. Istrongly believe that each student needs to create their own path, they mustdiscover their passion, only then can the power of instrinsic learning truly beunleashed. When the path has alreadybeen layed out for them, the same path as everyone else, and that path isextremely narrowly focused in math and reading, that chance for students todiscover their passion, to find the knowledge that will help them succeed atwhatever life they choose, is severely limited. Summerhill gives students that chance, and also frees them frompsychological pressures such as low-self esteem and self confidence, fear, andhatred. I believe there should be more experimentaland demonstration schools to find the right answers to education in our modernday, the big question is how can solutions to problems be duplicated across thecountry – which I believe is the true question, or whether replication is evenpossible, or the answer at all.
6-30-2011
Thoughts on CPS hiring policy:
http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-public-schools-do-not-hire/Content?oid=4147617
6-28-2011
Thoughts on letter to the editor:
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/topic/education/schools/chicago-public-schools-ORGOV000081.topic>
6-27-2011
Thoughts on Tribune articles, CPS cuts/plans:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/education/ct-met-cps-layoffs-20110626,0,3263116.story?obref=obnetwork
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-emanuel-announces-expansion-of-cps-teaching-academies-20110625,0,6768661.story
6-24-2011
Thoughts on Brizqrds new plan,
http://www.suntimes.com/6139863-417/cps-teachers-making-home-visits-new-ceo-jean-claude-brizard-floats-idea.html
6-20-2011
MSNBC Video, "early retirement", http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/43361102#43361102
This video is about the huge increase in teacher and state worker retirements this past year. They focused on one older teacher that was retiring, mainly due to the slandering of the profession by politicians and the media. It was nice to see a story, although sad, at least not negative about the profession. With huge campaigns against unions and teacher rights, benefits and retirement cuts, and pension changes i don't blame the exodus of teachers near retirement. I found it not surprising that the rate of retirement applications for teachers in Wisconsin according to this news segment was up a whopping 96%, Wisconsin being one of the states at the heart of the battle against teachers. This segment finally hinted at the fact that by demoralizing the profession, making huge cuts, and privatizing the public school system, your actually encouraging quality teachers to leave the profession. We are making are schools worse by this debacle that is education reform, mistakes that might take decades to remedy. Students in high school and college are deterred from joining the profession in the first place, further worsening the frontlines of education in America. More positive stories need to be shown over the airwaves to the public telling the real stories of teachers, students, families, and community. this would be the best way to defend our current situation and the immpending storm of market based privatized for-profit education models.
6-15-2011
Illinois education reform, Pat Quinn signs bill into law, Huffington Post
[[wlmailhtml:{402FCC91-F8B3-47ED-A494-E4D6AED9F905}mid:00000066/!x-usc:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/13/pat-quinn-signs-ed-reform-bill_n_876048.html|http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/13/pat-quinn-signs-ed-reform-bill_n_876048.html]]
Okay Larry! Are ya trying to show us all up by having all the reflections completed? :)
In the CNN article
I agree with Shulpe Stevens statement that, “Duncan has written off the input of teachers he claims to value.” I believe that Duncan, as well as many political officials and school district CEOs, do not take into consideration the valuable input teachers have to offer. Many teachers struggle trying to create a curriculum where there aren’t any resources for them to work with, books or supplies in the classrooms. They don’t ask the teachers what they need, lack, or see happening in their classroom or school district. They have blinders on only saying that they are trying to “do what’s best for the children.” ~Stacy
5-22-2011
Article reflectionCNN.comTeachers give cold shoulder to Obama education chief
This article outlines the bitterness teachers currently feel being attacked by politicians and the media. Currently teachers are the scapegoat for failing schools. Policy reformers and administration seem to be doing a great job? My mom gave me what I feel is a great analogy, we are at currently at war around the world for various reasons, and when things don’t go well, or we’re fighting where we shouldn’t be in the first place, who do people blame? The blame the people running the military, they blame the president, or the government, they do not blame the soldiers fighting on the ground, the troops. Using the same logic for blaming teachers in failing schools, would be like blaming the soldiers on the ground for decisions made at the pentagon. Administration and especially policy makers need to be blamed for the direction education in America is going in, not the teachers implementing their policy. It was nice that Arne Duncan gave a statement to the press praising teachers and the profession, but that means nothing when his actions are destroying the profession and those in it. War is coming, not on the battlefield, but in the classroom, and the only casualties are America’s youth.
Education week
Outlines of ESEA’s future emerging on Capitol HillThis article is about reauthorization of the elementary and secondary education act (ESEA) which is essentially no child left behind. This will be interesting because no child left behind failed incredibly at reaching its final goals, with almost 100% of schools in America failing to meet the standards set for the 2012 deadline. This reauthorization also begs the question of what kind of role should the federal government play in school accountability and funding. Accountability has been the name of the game for the past decade rewarding and punishing schools based on test scores and wide ranging metrics or adequate yearly progress (AYP). This article talks about talks to scrap smaller education programs that lawmakers say are ineffective, I feel confident about this due to the vast educational knowledge of lawmakers, (sarcasm). It seems that the belt will be tightening and education will lose more funding in an already under funded climate. The article talks about flexibility in how schools use funding, which I believe is the right way to go when considering that individual schools know best how to most effectively operate their schools to improve their student populations learning. Other measures discussed in the article are permanently incorporating the so-called solution of turning around schools – closing schools and replacing staff, where’s the data that proves this is a solution? Another is a literacy Bill which would bolster instruction in reading and writing which is probably needed if you want to improve test scores, despite this reason improving literacy can never be a bad thing if the finds are used correctly.
Yong Zhao“Can you be globally competitive by closing your doors and raising test scores”
This article highlights the growing problem in America’s school system with the focus on testing. This article argues with such extreme focus on extra math, reading, and test prep classes, as well as redirecting funding from foreign language, the arts, and other non core subjects to math and reading are having a detrimental effect on education. International schools are popping up all over the world, including a mobile international school called TGS (Think Global School.) This school moves to a different country every trimester, which I found fascinating. The partnership between a school in China and a school in Michigan I found interesting and hopefully is the start of something bigger. Being a teacher of the arts I feel the intense focus on core subjects can have a negative impact on education, but probably a positive impact on test data, which seems to be the only thing that matters. Today we have such an obsession with measuring performance, and with the increasing opinion that a market based approach to education is the right answer, data, metrics, test scores, and tools to measure performance whether they actually work or not is on the horizon. A possible answer I could extend is to fight data with data by doing research and gathering metrics that show we as a country are going in the wrong direction, and that education in America is getting worse due to the policies concerning testing and how we measure performance of schools. I strongly believe in an international education and we do need to improve education if our students aren’t developing reading and math skills which are important, but I believe focusing on poverty and social issues could have a larger impact on education then focusing on education itself.
5-15-2011:Thoughts on the inner world of teaching article handout
The best thing out of this aarticle are the three questions teachers ask themselves about awareness and control in dealing with events in the classroom:
1. How am I interpreting this event?
2. Will this interpretation lead to a positive outcome?
3. If not, what's a more useful interpretation?
I ask these things to myself ALL the time, constantly, in everything I do when reacting to the class, it changes day to day based on my mood and the moods of the students, you have to be a master at understanding peoples emotional status at any given time. Instantly picking up on personaity changes so as to get the most positive putcome. This article put into words what I strongly believe is the best way to constantly adapt and improve general interaction with students and the class as a whole.
5-15-2011: article review
The article Poor teaching for poor children..in the name of reform is an excellent article that really shines light on the problems in the inner city. Overall these problems are not stemming from bad teachers or teaching, but from the direction and pressure put on teachers to influence their instruction from the implementation of reform by administration and politicians. Ever since standardized tests became the gold standard for “improving schools” by measuring student achievement, and now teacher effectiveness, slowly and steadily teachers have had to cater there instruction to improving these scores by which schools and education are judged. This has resulted in instruction that has become less about conceptual understanding and more about rote learning, memorization, and test taking strategies. This has had a severe effect where scores are lowest, in areas of poverty in urban environments, penalizing these schools by taking away funding or turning around schools that create massive instability in student’s lives. This creates more problems than it solves. The studies and statistics in this article do not surprise me such as minority students getting drill and practice exercises while white children are more likely to get exploratory methods of instruction, which the study mentioned in the article is associated with poorer test results. Yet the people writing reform do not seem to be aware of these factors. The other big point in this article is when the “standardized exams justify dreadful forms of teaching to appear successful,” when statistical gains are made by test prep classes and other test focused courses. My thoughts? All these reform measures have created even more inequality in education in America. Who is running education, the schools? Who is responsible for education in America? The blame game is a hot topic right now and teachers are getting the short end of the stick. We’re turning into a system where teachers are going to be mindless drones teaching exactly the way non-teachers, administration, and reformers want, who are disconnected from the actual education system, classrooms, parents, and students. Why will the system turn into this beast? Because unions are being destroyed, charters are taking over, and teacher accountability is the new name of the game, and teachers want to keep their jobs, so in the end they will have to anything the boss says despite their training and first hand classroom experience. Control is leaving the hands of the experts and is being given to people that experience the education system in the third person.
5-15-2011: article reflection
My thoughts on the article, Help Charters//, are disturbing. I am constantly asking myself why the decisions discussed in the article are being made by people in power. What is the true intent by reformers and the political elite? It is quite obvious at least one point is the complete privatization of public education in America. This article screams this point when former Mayor Daley cleans out the dying public schools by consolidating 7 schools into 4. This article screams this point when the lame duck school board renews a failing charter school, Urban Charter Prep High. This article screams this point when the school board renews Chicago Virtual Charter School which flunked its accountability plan. Chicago Virtual High School, a school where students attend lab classes twice a week with “learning coaches,” I don’t know how I can express my immense outrage into words. Will my profession be transformed from teachers to learning coaches? Who thought up the idea of turning teachers into computer lab baby sitters? Are reformers seriously surprised this is not working out, and yet the school board of Chicago renews the charter contract? What is the allure of privatization of public education? Is it because the inner cities are failing standardized tests that we have to privatize? It’s certainly an excuse. Is it because reformers have to completely overhaul the system to try and get better results by using market-based approaches to the education system? Reformers and politicians love data; they would marry data, and live happily ever after. But where is the data in this fairytale storybook of the life of education? I have yet to see any data that is conclusively saying charters are the answer, that privatization is the answer to improving our school system. Yet here we are.
5-5-2011: Thoughts on educating Esme'
Interesting article. I think Ive felt the same way Esme felt in the people she encountered starting her education career. Often in the past I have come up against constant road blocks from co-workers in positions of power that thought they knew best in my music program, even though they had little understanding of the arts, music, or how a successful program operates and looks like. After my first year i came to the conclusion that I must teach everyone around me what a successful band program is and looks like, and to buy in to my philosophy of music education. Initially I felt hesitant, but the more conferences, books, articles i read, conversations with colleagues and mentors, i began to form a more solid teaching technique and philosophy which now stands strong and confident. And i am strong and confident in conveying my ideas to others, in a positive way so as to have the majority of people around me buy in to what i am trying to accomplish. I formed the idea from reading the article that Esme didn't expect incompetance entering the field from veteran professionals, but indeed encountered this, which disrupted her mission in eduction, and we all have this in our lives as educators. It is frustrating. This article highlighted the internal politics of the profession that can be difficult for all teachers, not just beginners.
5-4-2011 : Thoughts on NLU education forum: Chicago Shakespeare theater
I thought this forum was awesome for getting a vareity of professionals in the field of education. The big idea I took away from this was getting taken back to the larger picture of society and the democracy we are trying to build in the United States of America. Democracy truly is at the core when it comes to education. Education that is equal for all classes of society that creates citizens that go forth and build the society in which we live and prosper. Education is not equal in America, and this inequality is at the heart of the social problems we encounter in this current day. Where are the worst schools? In urban areas of extreme poverty. How can we help students in these areas and at these schools without addressing the core problem of social inequality and poverty. During the forum i agreed with many of the hopeful and optimistic veiwpoints of the ideas of reform to improve our current system, but what the forum seemed to lack, as a certain reality of where we are in this reform in the past year. Current reform is leading us down a path of privatization and market based education, that has not seen true merit in research. Current reform has seen the demies of unions that sole purpose was to promote equality among laborors and the middle class. The more I read through current reform policy the more I see a terminally ill middle class which despite its moral and societal implications, expands upon the problems in education we already have. Thoughts to continue processing...The forum was on the short side, although opening a mammoth discussion such as this no time limit would satisfy, rather I would promote an ongoing regular debate among scholars on these issues. It is needed. i was impressed by Bill Ayers and Deborah Meier, both seemed to have a greater understanding of the art of education and how to move forward in a positive direction, although no clear cut solutions seemed to arise from this forum. Rather a conversation among different professionals in the field of education, not all on the same side, in itself seemed to be a start. i wished they would of addressed the future mayors education reform for next year in Chicago, wich wasnt discussed at all, I also would of liked more discussion on the demies of the teachers unions and the privatization direction of education policy on the federal and state levels.
Past articles - semester/term I
2-13-2011
New Classroom technology
Got a new netbook to use for writing for class. I chose one that was small and portable that had both netbook and tablet features. Its an inspiron duo, a netbook/tablet hybrid - new technology, its a regular netbook with a screen and a keyboard but the screen can flip over and you can close the netbook to become a tablet with touchscreen interface. It has way more power then a standard tablet with windows 7 on it, a 250G HD, and 2 Gigs of ram so I'm able to install all the standard music software unlike other tablets. I've been experimenting with it by using it in my classes with great results. I hooked up the band room stereo system to an extended quarter inch audio out and set up the cord right behind the podium so I can hook it into the netbook to play recordings at will. Since the netbook has a huge harddrive, I am able to put all my music (an extensive collection spanning many genres of music) on the harddrive and play it off the computer. I also installed my recording software on the computer and by using the built in microphone I was able to record the classes easily. Before, recording took alot more setup with microphones, mic stands, and all the different inputs. The computers builtin microphone does a remarkably great job at picking up the band after i tweaked it. I was then able to play music examples, record, and play back the recordings to the class that they just performed in a matter of seconds. The key is not wasting instruction time with tech setup. Immediate feedback and the ability for the students to assess their own performance on the fly seems to be highly effective and another strategy I can use in class. The only issues I have is I had to spend my own money to get the technology - I've been trying to get more computers in the band room for 3 years now, and the second issue is the computer is small and I have to keep track of it - easily stolen.
2-15-2011
Thoughts on onine article about private donations to public schools
This article goes along with the race to the top program which dangles a carrot of cash in front of school districts willing to come up with and adopt new ways of improving school reform. Illinois was one of the states that barely missed being chosen. The overall idea of philanthropic and private donations to public schools on the surface seems like a great idea in the economically dire atmosphere of todays financial woes. In my opinion, I am very cautious when it comes to private entities investing large sums of money. Money equals agendas and interests that will effect the way education is implemented in the future. For example, I attend a few conferences every year for music education. Most of the lectures and clinics are very imformative having educational strategies and best practices as the main point rightfully so. Every so often though i walk in and sit down anxiously awaiting another informative lecture and by the end I relize that all it had been was a huge advertisement for new book. It was a commercial, not a class. That is what education is going to turn into, one giant commercial trying to sway potential young consumers thoughts into their next purchase, oh yes, and some learning too. This is why I believe a federally and state controlled educational system is the better way with little to no bias, the student's education being number one. Even though we are far away from a completely privatised school system, the country is definitely headed in that direction.
2-15-2011
Thoughts on flatworm school reform article
Excellent article! I agreed with so much of this this long albiet tough read. The correlation between the industrial revolution and the school system was a great analogy, and simplifies what an aged approach we still have to our educational system. The idea of indeginous invention is in my opinion the way to go toward educational reform. The flatworm idea of replication is another great analogy. Something that works for one school is not going to work for every school in our diverse nation. So many factors ranging from ethnicity, to socioeconomic, to geographical, to cultural, to language effect how diverse our school systems actually are in the United states. Outside third party sources far removed from education are constructing educational reform, this reform is implemented by teachers and administration in public schools all across the nation, without close partnership with the third parties that came up with this reform to make the implementation process successful. The key is that every school is different, just like every student and student population are different. The faculty and staff know whats best for there school because they are there everyday experiencing the trials, tribulations, and triumphs. Indegenous invention promotes that making the schools faculty and staff a main part of the educational reform to improve the school. This does not disclude third parties, but makes them a secondary partner, increasingly closely involved at the school that they are partnered with. The schools themselves know whats best for them, and making this process a voluntary one and not a mandate creates true partners for change.
Replication does not work.
The constant one size fits all educational "fads" and trends do not work.
Third parties not involved with specific schools but selling educational curriculum and reform to them does not work.
Indeginous invention can work if the power is transfered into the schools hands without threat of closing down and firings.
Teachers are being trained to differentiate there instruction, and then assess their students using standardized tests, this is hypocritical
2-17-2011
Chapter 1: What I learned about school reform, The Death and Life of the American school System
This chapter was mainly about the history of Diane Ravitch's career and work where she researched the history of education in America. She talked about the reforms education has taken and how it has been shaped in the past 20 years. It seemed to detail a life of trial and error, of possible answers to the ailing educational systems, those solutions put into place, and eventually not working out. I liked her conlcusion of the movement on accountability and choice were not as important as currciulum and instruction, which I believe is at the very heart of what and how students learn. I found on the topic of school choice, Diane wrote "It might even harm public schools by removing the best students from schools in the poorest neighborhoods" wh9ich is definitely happening in chicago and even at my High school. i went recruiting to middle schools my first year and found that most of the high performing band students were all going to a few of the magnet schools and would never even consider going to the neighborhood school. Even the middle school teachers recommended to goto a different high school then a neigborhood high school at any cost, thus my school and other neighborhood schools getting the lowest performing and usual worst behaved of the student populations graduating middle school. On accountability, Diane writes "(accountability) was not raising standaards but dumbing down schools as states and districts strived to meet unrealistic targets." Initially this was the case at my high school and in some metrics that we are scored on for are school report, some of the targets are still very unrealistic - and this causes huge problems and in the end instruction and learning suffers. The intense focus on data and metrics can eventually become counter productive if not utilized, implemented, and presented to the faculty, staff, and students in the right way - and every school is different. I see the use of data as a guidepost to decision making and objective and goal making, a strategy for adaptability, not a stringent target that must be met, no matter how unrealistic, with massive consequences if failure occurs. Near the end of teh chapter Diane talks about making education interactive and making "learning lively," which i agree with 100% and try to do in my classes on a regular basis. Its this intense interaction with the students that keeps them engaged to the point where you can actually have the chance of delivering high level instruction and the students actually recieving it.
2-20-2011
Chapter 2: Hijcked...:The death and life of the American School system
This chapter is about how the movement for creating standards in each content area for education got morphed into standardized testing which dominates today's educational landscape. I found it interesting how the attack on the national history standards in 1994 had such a huge impact on what shaped later reform due to the volitility of the debate on standards after controversy rocked the nation on historical perspective and the standards - Disapointing. The book goes on to tell how after the controversy they eventually make watered down standards with no specifics and no requirement to follow so there would be no controversy - also very disapointing. When it was left up to the states, I felt some optimism with soem states getting more detailed and specific about the content and curriulum they wanted implemented across the board. I was especially intrigued with this because music has a very broad base of standards - making music teachers create their own curriculum. I have encountered problems with this because the middle schools students that graudate to my high school often have a varied array of skill sets, most extremely under performing. The fact that not some students NEVER had music classes at all is also a huge concern, let alone a progressive year to year study based on a cohesive curriculum. The result is every music class at my high school starts all over on square one, and can never progress to much of an advanced level - I dicovered this right away when i started teaching and was truley saddened. The rest of the chapter talks about the Nation at Risk report and its momentous influence on the policies and reform that followed, with politics constantly shaping that reform which led eventually into NCLB. The chapter goes on to explain how NCLB has a narrow focus only testing on math and reading, later science but not scored on the federal report card, was a federal mandate, not a report like ANAR, measured success only by test scores, concerned itself only with basic skills and improving reading and math scores - not knowledge or a well rounded education. I agree with many of the facts and opinions I have read, and having personal experience administering the tests, it is in the least a fascinating experiment but one with which I fear will yield little results as to teh furthering and improvement of our educational system. In the end the U.S. put into effect a system of standards that was vague with no backing or requirements to follow - to avoid political heat and endorsed standardized tests; that only test basic skills in math and reading and now science, and do not cover, have accountability, or put any importance on any of the other content areas. the chapter ends with the book highlighting some of teh basic tenets of ANAR that still apply today - more time spent doing student work, focus on curriculum, setting clear and resonable graduation requirements, improving teh quality of textbooks and tests, etc. which I agree with, its putting those ideas into practice and making them effective that is the underlying problem - if we actually chose to go into that direction instead of the direction we are currently heading.
2-21-2011
Watching the movie, Waiting for Superman. Favorite part is when they talk about the teacher that used a rap to teach measurements in science, and the part about the highly charismatic teachers at the KIPP schools. At my school i can't teach band the way I would teach it at a white suburban school, I had to highly adapt when i came to my school in Chicago after teaching in south rural florida and suburban Wisconsin. Students wouldn't pay attention, they would do whatever they want, classroom control was highly difficult when i started. using strategies of espirit de Corps and positive beheavior reinforcement - which I already did, but at an extreme level in the inner city, then was i starting to see success. I really had the rally the classroom around making progress, i had to sacrafice alot of teacher to class instruction in exchange for one on one attention to create fast and solid relationships with each student so they would get on board with what I was trying to do and teach. Banding the class together, including them in teh assessment process, and showing them through videotape and digital recording that they were making real progress, and then CONSANTLY reforcing those strategies I was able to be successful.
The movie overall is very interesting, but doesn't offer any real solutions and seems bias towards charter schools. The movie states only 1 in 5 charters are successful but quickly moves on, but constantly persuades the veiwer of how much better the charter schools are. It tries to expose many of the problems of education and most likely fuels the movements of radical change no matter what the consequences. A quote in the movie, "you can't have a great school without great teachers" I believe is true. i believe there is too much beauracracy governing education that creates problems, which is highlighted in the movie.
The scenes about the track coures is interesting, in how they track students based on test scores. They do that at our high school, but it seems if students score low on math, they should not be put in a high level math course until they have attained teh skills. On teh other hand, many of my students chose to blow of the recent Practice ACT because they said they were special ed and they would never get out of the course track, so why try. I thought about that alot the past few weeks. Low self esteem and teachers not teaching in a way that promotes positive behavior, optimism, or gives positive feedback when students do well is a problem. In band if students do well i have the entire class pat there feet, giving that student positive feedback, that strategy seemed to be highly impactful on motivation and learning.
In today's age whether it is right or not, students have the option to learn. if they choose to screw around, daze off, give no effort, not show up to class or shw up late, there are little or no consequences. Now It is the teachers job to be a motivational speaker, to be inspirational, to be an actor on stage performing, captivating there students into learning, into giving effort, into showing how to display correct behavior, into caring about there future. It is not enough to teach the material or be a master of your content area. Only teachers that realize all this and put forth tremendous effort will survive in the future educatioal system.
2-26-2011
General Journal
I enjoyed the part in graduate class on Wednesday night where we discussed the Ravitch book chapter 2. I thought Suzanne led the discussion quite well and had some interesting things to say that I had not thought of. I like talking education policy and like to hear others views - I don't often get to have those kind of conversations with friends or even colleagues and i wish I had more opportunities for debate with people that were up on current educational reform.
2-27-2011
Thoughts on article on "The next teacher's contract" of the Chicago tribune, feb. 26th, 2011
I think extending the school day is a good idea, but mandating it without contract negotiations will be problematic, most teachers, such as myself work till 5 or 6 oclock anyway on a daily basis, with no extra compensation.
Thoughts on the spend smarter suggestions:
Stop rewarding teachers for continuing there education is idiotic especially with rising tuition costs - other professions don't require you to keep going to school, pay the tuition out of your own pocket, and not get any increase in pay, just to keep the same position and pay as when you got out of undergrad.
Extending the school day with online classes sounds like a great idea that saves money while increasing student learning, BUT it in reality a computer is a poor substitute for a human instructor. I don't see this having a huge impact on student learning.
Pay the best teachers for superior performance. Thats great! How do we measure teacher performance? Research might show that years experience or degrees earned might not measure the effectiveness of a teacher, but research in merit pay has not shown to increase student learning or teacher effectiveness either.
Scale back severence pay, i could see this as a easy concession to give, but then when the unions lose there rights and they can fire anyone, this could have a huge effect.
Firing teachers quickly: I believe there should be less redtape then there is now when getting rid of bad teachers, BUT there should be red tape, making it too easy would have teachers being fired so schools could have cheaper labor sacraficing quality instruction, and teachers being fired so the prinicpals friend could get hired.
Make tenure harder to get/easy to lose - what is the point of tenure if it is so hard to get and easy to lose, it makes it meaningless. Harder to get I could see, raise the level of accomplishment or make it an option to work for, going aboe and beyond your regular duties, instead of getting it automatically. National boards would be an interesting requirement to get tenured.
3-1-2011
General Journal
Crisis at work today, my school never registered me on the Illinois High School Association website, so I can't register yet for the IL state band assessment, deadline is March 11th, which today got pushed to March 4th, a week earlier...yay me! So I'm scrambling to get the registration fee checks written out, having my admin register me, while planning in the most efficient way possible to have the most difficult music I have ever done at my school ready in 4 weeks for the concert assessment...on top of that its crunch time for national boards. I have been spending all my time writing and I'm getting worn out. I wrote for four hours after school yesterday and by the end my typing was not making sense and I kept having to go back and figure out what I was thinking, so that was it and I got some restt. I was also thinking about proncipals today, my principal is on his 4th year - the contract year, so I wonder if he will be staying or leaving, and if any proncipal could do that much better in a school where in my opinion 10% of the teachers are at maximum effectiveness, 60% are riding it out with average effectiveness, and 30% are not doing anything but sitting and talking with the kids while they collect there paycheck, which is usually twice as much as what I'm making..depressing. I'm sure if we did get a new principal it would be the luck of the draw whether he would support the arts or not, and if he didn't I'd be looking for a new job...so it goes...hammer to the anvil, steadyfast
3-12-2011
UIC Forum: Diane Ravitch lecture
I saw Diane Ravtch today at UIC, many of her points covered what was in the book which was expected. The CTU president was there and spoke at the beginning and end and it started to feel like a union rally. They talked about WI and continuing to protest even though the end of collective bargaining bill was passed. A few things Diane advocated was to first be as knowledgeable as possible about education policy and whats going on politically in order to effectively advocate education and change. She told everyone when talking about education reform, to call it corporate reform from now on, because thats what it has become. I thought that was cool. She handed out a flyer called a better system, which had bullet points of what education reform should look like. Diane said she is willing to be a leader in the movement to change the landscape of education and the direction that we are going in, and I believe she could be a powerful force. I have to say I am extremely impressed with Diane and firmly believe in the reforms she is putting forward. Some of these for chicago are:
1. A representative elected school board
2. a superintendant of CPS with educational experience and visionary leadership
3. TIF reform - return the 250 million dollars in TIFs taken from public schools each year
4. Fully qualified teachers on day one
5. Complete audit of cps evaluating state law, cps school policy, cps programs, central office management practices, area wide administrative management and budgeting practices
She talked about Arne Duncan not showing his face in WI, and partnering with the Gates and Broad foundations to end public education. She talked about the lack of rationality in education reform again and again stating policy that makes no sense, is not backed up by research, and is steering education into privatization. She emphasized Finland schools - 100% union, no standardized tests, and small class sizes attributing to being #1, and told teh audience to watch the movie Inside Job about wall street crooks instead of waiting for superman - because wall street and the billionaires are the ones taking over education.
3-21-2011
Watched Inside job
Crazy what financial greed is doing to our country, this movie fascinating and depressing at the same time, I can really see the social class structure in america going from rich, middle,poor to rich and poor, mostly poor in a short time, like the next ten years the way things are going, greed never ceases t amaze me, especially considering I personally dont value monetary gains - my life goal has always been about helping people, the best way I knew how to do that was medicne or education and education allowed me to incorporate music, a passion of mine, into my lifes work
3-23-2011
The life and death of the american education system: Capter 8: testing accountability
Testing is designed for one puprpose - to guage development in the specific content area the test is for, such as math, reading, etc. It could also be a guage as to the effectiveness of curriculum or special programs incoporated to improve student academics.
Testing is used in COMBINATION with other ways to assess student learning to most effectively plan and implement instruction. Testing was not designed to measure teacher effectiveness and skill - the testing companies even state this, so why are the politicians using tests as a measure for teacher pay, hirings/firings/ and whether schools get funding. i dont understand.
The Civic Comittee of the commercial Club of Chicago released a study in 2009 about exaggerated test scores, Chicago saw huge increases from 2004-2009, these scores were inflated because a new testing company was hired, a new test was implemented, and the new test had a lower cut score, yet politicians still took credit for these exagerrated increases in student learning and test scores...again the media and politicians have there own perspectives, and then manipulate the mass society into believeing anything they want
Educators and the education community should handle education - why are we giving control to outside entities?
I found it interesting that the National test and goals panel got turned down in Congress in the early 1990's and then was abolished by 2000.
Test based accountability corrupts the reason for testing - a measure of student performance
Punitive accountability = increased corruption (gaming the system) peoples livlihoods are on the line - data manipulation on every level, local state, federal - people will do what they can to save themselves
Positive accountability seemed the most effective but this trend seemed to go by the wayside as punitive accountability became popular: "shutting down bad schools" seems like a good political move - Politics corrupts education
I found the following to be most profound in this chapter:
We cannot define what matters in education ONLY by what can be measured.
I liked the statistics on when they started measuring doctors mortality rates, and doctors did not do risky procedures because they did not want there rating to be effectd, and possibly lose there job or accredidation, so instead, people that might have lived, died. why has our society gone the path of 100% measurement and accountability - there is no work ethic or moral or civic duty anymore, and if it exists it hides itself in the shadows
4-22-2011
Just started reading up on AUSL: Academy for urban school leadership, a program designed for turnaround schools, new teachers, new admin. same problems - these non-for profits scare me - but this is teh direction Rahm is going in..more on ausl later
4-23-2011
Education Chicago Politics: "Corporate reform"
One of the web articles made it sound like Brizard is moving to Chicago after not being able to put his policy changes through due to protests by parents, communities, and the union, but now coming to Chicago with a handpicked board by the mayor-elect, there should be no obstacles to stand in his way...scary...The only board member chosen which seems to have education experience is Andrea Senz, all the others are MBAs and AUSL associates
4-24-2011
Comments on article "Court upholds ruling on improperly fired CPS teachers
I found it a definite breach of contract with the union when CPS decided to let go tenured teachers due to budget cuts and then not reinstate or give opportunities for emloyment when that became available, when I heard about this I thought about what tenured actually meant if a loop holes existed like budget cuts to circumvent the right of tenure. Despite the courts ruling which upholds on improper firing of tenured teachers, the article states 417 of the 750 some tenured teachers were hired back, while 500 new (cheaper) teachers were hired. CPS seems to be playng the budget game by influxing new teachers that are half as expensive to staff then 20 year veterans. Who needs quality when you can save money - our students. How about taking that same philosophy towards admin. salaries?
4-24-2011
Comments on "Thoughts on merit pay"
the big concern I have about merit pay is the way teachers are evaluated to recieve this pay - the number one evaluating measure I see is standardized tests, which directly contradict staements made by testing companies that there tests are "not designed to measure teacher effectiveness" but are designed to evaluate students achievement and skill sets. Why then are the politicians pushing the standardized tests to be a tool for merit pay? I suspect the answer is because there is no curremt effective tool for measuring teacher effectiveness which is a looming question in the broad context of education policy.As I have seen in a myriad of other issues, politics plays teh blame game and teachers are easy targets. How long will teachers, the profession, and most importantly the students suffer before politicians realize teachers are not the problem but rather larger and deeper societal issues that severely effect education to a detrimental effect. The article goes on to explain studies where merit pay has been intiated with little or no results. When I was in florida teaching they instituted a program based on merit pay, by the end of the year I felt like it was a lottery drawing or a popularity contest of who got the cash, not really based on any conclusive evidence or data. I would propose merit pay for all, as in a general increase in salary to attract highly educated and talented people to the profession of teaching. I believe this would have a larger effect on students learning and development.
5-22-11 Larry, I'm not sure when you posted your resume, but I am glad you did. It looks very impressive and would get attention at a glance. I have been "tweeking" my resume for this upcoming school year. I need some instant attention also, so I will take something from yours. Your name in big bold letters and the font size, kind of says: I'm confident and pay some attention to me.